Preparation and Characterization of Graphene / Polyacrylamide Electroconductive Hydrogel

Koh, Hui Jing (2019) Preparation and Characterization of Graphene / Polyacrylamide Electroconductive Hydrogel. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Graphene, a two dimensional monoatomic thick building block of a carbon allotrope, has emerged as an exotic material of the 21st century, and received world-wide attention due to its exceptional charge transport, thermal, optical, and mechanical properties. Two-dimensional graphene materials have been widely used in various biomedical research areas such as bioelectronics, imaging, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. The purpose of this project is to synthesize graphene/ polyacrylamide conductive hydrogel. Acrylamide (AAm) is monomer, N,N’-methylenebis (acrylamide)(BIS) is crosslinker, and potassium persulfate (KPS) as initiator. Pristine graphene is the filler in hydrogel. The fabrication method of hydrogel is free radical polymerization. Polyacrylamide hydrogels with different weight percent of graphene are made. Few testing were carried out to investigate the properties of conductive hydrogel such as FTIR, SEM, compression test, electrical conductivity test, and swelling test. Sample with 0.1 wt% graphene has the highest Young’s modulus. The highest electrical conductivity obtained in this project is 3.101*10-5 S/cm, which is from sample contains 2.0wt% of graphene hydrogel. In this project, the higher the graphene weight percent, the higher of electrical conductivity. The highest swelling ratio obtained is 26.81. At the end of thesis will have brief conclusion on the properties of graphene/ polyacrylamide hydrogel and future work to improve the hydrogel.