Preparation of PMMA/graphene oxide microcellular foams using supercritical carbon dioxide

Abstract

Microcellular foams have a widely applications in many industries due to their superior properties. In this paper, the polymethymethacrylate (PMMA)/graphene oxide (GO) microcellular foams were prepared by supercritical carbon dioxide as a friendly foaming agent. The effect of graphene oxide amount on cellular structure and mechanical strength of foams had been investigated. Microstructure characterization bases on scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cell size and cell density were calculated via image analysis. It was found that the average foam cell size was decreased from 20.1 μm to 2.2 μm and the cell density was increased from 2.8×108 to 3.3×1010 when 1.5wt.% GO sheets were added into PMMA matrix. In addition, the compression strength of polymeric foams was increased from 13 MPa to 39 MPa.