Space-confined thermal disintegration synthesis of graphene-copper nanohybrids for enhanced tribological behaviors of epoxy-based composites

Epoxy resin (EP) has received extensive attention in the field of mechanical engineering due to its outstanding physical mechanical performance and chemical stability. However, relatively weak thermal and abrasion properties seriously limit its application in motion conditions. Here, we report copper-graphene nanohybrids (Cu-G) prepared by a space-confined thermal disintegration method as promising materials for improving the thermal and tribological properties of epoxy composites. Impressively, the thermal conductivity and stability properties of EP/Cu-G composites present obvious enhancements compared to pure EP. Meanwhile, the tensile strength and elongation at break of EP/Cu-G are increased by 8.0% and 7.5% compared to those of pure EP. In addition, sliding test results reveal that the wear rate of EP/Cu-G composites show a 66.7% decline, which can be ascribed to the synergistic enhancement effects between graphene and Cu.