Water absorption and thickness swelling behaviour of graphene nanoplatelets reinforced epoxy composites

In this study, nano composite materials were fabricated using graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) and epoxy using hand layup method. GNP/epoxy composites were prepared using various weight percent of GNP (0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% and 1.0%). Then the theoretical density, actual density, water absorption, and thickness swelling (TS) were calculated of the given samples with different immersion times in water up to an equilibrium condition. As the weight percentage of GNP increased, the density of the nanocomposites decreased. Due to less void content, the water absorption and TS were a minimum of 0.5% of GNP particles. This is due to the homogeneous distribution of nanoparticles. After this, the value of water absorption is increased up to 1.0% of GNP. It is due to non-uniform and agglomeration of nanoparticles.