Graphene-based polymer nanocomposites: recent advances and still open challenges

From its appearance in the scientific literature, graphene has received much interest, first from the scientific community and then, after the scale-up of the methods suitable for its production, from the industrial world. Nowadays, this nanofiller has to be considered as one of the most promising and performing materials ever discovered: in fact, it is deserving application in different fields, including nanoelectronics, quantum physics, catalysis, energy research and engineering of nanocomposites and biomaterials. The remarkable growth in science, graphene underwent during the last 15 years, is strictly connected to its peculiarities, such as high Young’s modulus, high fracture strength, remarkable thermal and electrical conductivity, large specific surface area, high charge carrier mobility and also biocompatibility. At present, one of application fields where graphene is gaining a lot of success refers to the fabrication of polymer composites on a commercial scale and low/affordable cost, including both thermoplastic and thermosetting host matrices. These composites do exploit the homogeneous dispersion level of the nanofiller within the polymer matrix, mainly for enhancing the electrical and thermal conductivity of this latter, as well as its mechanical properties, in a remarkable way, even in the presence of very low graphene loadings. In addition, the obtained nanocomposites usually show higher thermal stability with respect to the unfilled polymer matrix. At present, there are about six main areas related to emerging applications for this nanofiller, including displays/screens, biomedical devices, memory chips, fuel cells/batteries, inks, coatings and, from an overall point of view, new smart materials. This paper aims at reviewing the current state of the art about the use of graphene as a nanofiller in both thermoplastics and thermosets, highlighting the current limitations and providing an overall point of view on its possible applications/further developments in the next future.