Synthesis, experimental testing and multi-scale modelling of graphene foam/epoxy composite

In this work, randomly three-dimensional graphene foam (RGF) is synthesized from the chemical reduction of graphene oxide solution in the self-assembly method. RGF/epoxy composite is then obtained by the RTM method. Tensile testing highlights the effect of RGF drying percentage on the composite and shows a 138% and 48% increase in the Young modulus and tensile strength compared to epoxy. Also, by considering representative unit cell (RUC), a multi-scale numerical method using finite element analysis based on Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), and molecular dynamics (MD), are performed to obtain the mechanical properties of the RGF/epoxy composite material.