www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org EFFECT OF GRAPHENE / MONTMORILLONITE ON CHITOSAN NANOCOMPOSITES WITH MODIFIED MORPHOLOGY, THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES SUCHISMITA MOHANTY 1 , SUBRATA SARANGI 2 & GOURI SANKAR ROY 3 1,2 Department of Physics, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha, India 3 Department of Physics, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, Khordha, India ABSTRACT Polymer composites, filled by graphitic nanostructures, have attracted increased attention owing to their unique thermal and electric properties. In this study, graphene / montmorillonite / chitosan (GE/MMT/CS) was prepared by a simple solution mixing-evaporation method. The effects of GE/MMT /CS on thermal and electrical properties of the nanocomposite films were investigated. The results indicate that the simultaneously introduced GE and MMT into CS could greatly improve the physical properties. Thermal analysis of the samples shows that the material is stable up to 230°C and maintains its thermal stability all throughout the process until it starts degrading after 480°C. Investigations of electrical properties of CS/MMT/GE show a significant increase of electrical conductivity with the increase of the GE content. The conductivity of the sample with only 5 wt% GE load is as high as 10 -2 S/cm which is four orders of magnitude higher than that of the neat polymer. KEYWORDS: Nanocomposites, Chitosan, Graphene, Themal and Electrical Properties INTRODUCTION The concept of charge storage within the electrochemical double layer was first described by the German Physicist Hermann von Helmholtz in 1858 [1]. However, it took another 100 years before this principle was used for energy storage applications. The first reference of a EDLC-like energy storage device dates back to a patent by General Eclectics in 1957, describing a "Low voltage electrolytic capacitor"[2]. Graphene, since its discovery in 2004 [3] has continued to gain significance owing to its extremely attractive characteristics. The first observation of a graphene-like structure was made by Boehm et al. in 1962. They used electron microscopy to investigate so called "graphite oxide soot" [4], which was derived from degradation of graphite oxide. The electron microscope revealed the soot to consist of thin packages of carbon hexagonal sheets today referred to as "graphene nanoplatelets"[5]. However, at that time the response of the scientific community was limited and thus, no further studies were conducted in this direction. In the meantime, graphite and graphite intercalation compounds attracted great interest, as they ordered a feasible way for ion storage [6-10]. Hence, as part of providing the terminology for graphite intercalation compounds in 1994, Boehm et al. introduced the term of "graphene" describing a single carbon layer of the graphite structure [11]. In order to bestow the conductivity in exfoliated graphene oxide, it had to be stripped off the oxygen functionalities that make them highly hydrophilic allowing intercalation of water molecules. In other words, Graphene Oxide has highly disoriented sp 2 bonding due to the presence of International Journal of Physics and Research (IJPR) ISSN(P): 2250-0030; ISSN(E): 2319-4499 Vol. 5, Issue 4, Aug 2015, 29-38 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.