Investigation of the graphene oxide and asphalt interaction and its effect on asphalt pavement performance Yuanyuan Li, Shaopeng Wu, Serji Amirkhanian ⇑ State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architectures, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China highlights  Graphene oxide (GO) was used to modify two kinds of asphalt binders.  No chemical reaction between GO and asphalt, the CO 2 was produced by the decomposition of GO.  Lamella structure of GO was completely stripped, and scattered to a single layer in asphalt binders.  GO modified asphalt binders have better performance at both low and high temperatures.  GO could improve the anti-fatigue performance of the asphalt. article info Article history: Received 29 June 2017 Received in revised form 9 November 2017 Accepted 11 January 2018 Keywords: Graphene oxide GO-asphalt interaction Pavement performance Physical properties Rheological properties Thermal properties abstract Previous studies have shown that graphene oxide (GO) could improve the mechanical and rheological properties of polymers. However, the GO-asphalt interaction and the effects of GO on asphalt pavement performance are still not clear. In this paper, the GO modified asphalt binders were prepared by melt blending method, the GO-asphalt interaction was investigated by the Fourier transform infrared spec- troscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS). The GO effects on the pavement performance of asphalt binders were also studied. In addition, the thermal prop- erties of GO modified asphalt were studied by thermo gravimetric (TG) analysis. The results show that the gas released from GO modified asphalt is the CO 2 . There is no chemical reaction between the GO and asphalt binders, as much as the CO 2 is produced by the decomposition of GO. After being mixed with asphalt binders, the lamella structure of GO is completely stripped, and scattered to a single layer in asphalt binders. The GO has many advantages in improving the pavement performance. Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Graphene oxide (GO), is a precursor for grapheme, which has atomic thickness and two dimensional sizes in the tens of microm- eter range or larger [1,2]. Its molecular structure is roughly the same as the grapheme, and also has the excellent gas and liquid blocking performance [3,4] and certain conductivity [5,6]. Cur- rently, GO, for its excellent structure and functional properties, is widely used in many areas such as gas sensors, carbon-based elec- tronics, impermeable membrane and polymeric composite materi- als. For instance, Yoo B M [7] demonstrated that GO layered structures could maximize the gas-diffusion path length and, as a result, significantly decrease the gas flux through layered compos- ite films. Tang Z [8] found that the modulus and tensile strength of the butadiene-styrene-vinyl pyridine rubber could be significantly improved by utilization of GO. Jeffrey T. P [9] and Bai H [10] demonstrated that GO had a extremely large specific surface area, high modulus, in conjunction with water solubility and versatile surface chemistry, so it could be used as the reinforcing additives for various polymers. The research work conducted by Yongjin [11] showed that GO could improve the conductivity, thermal, mechanical, and rheological properties of poly (methylmethacry- late). What’s more, Wenbo Zeng [12] and Wu S [13] used the GO as anti-aging modifier for asphalt, the results showed that GO improved the anti thermo-oxidative aging and anti UV aging per- formance of asphalt binders. Other researchers have indicated the effects of aging of asphalt binder on the performance of the flexible pavement [14,15]. For the special molecular structure, it is possible for GO to improve the anti-aging performance of asphalt by several ways: a) GO can pre- vent the contact of oxygen with the asphalt, and reduce the reac- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.01.068 0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: liyuanyuan@whut.edu.cn (Y. Li), wusp@whut.edu.cn (S. Wu), samirkhanian@eng.ua.edu (S. Amirkhanian). Construction and Building Materials 165 (2018) 572–584 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat