Process for making horizontally-aligned epoxy graphene material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10934407-B2
Application number	US-201816169093-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2018
Priority date	Oct 11, 2016
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A method includes depositing graphene into a hardener, mixing the hardener and the graphene to produce a homogeneous composite mixture, adding a resin material to the composite mixture to produce an epoxy graphene material, coating a structure with the epoxy graphene material, aligning the graphene sheets in the in-plane orientation, and curing the epoxy graphene material.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
depositing graphene into a hardener;
mixing the hardener and the graphene to produce a composite mixture;
adding a resin material to the composite mixture to produce low-outgassing epoxy graphene material having a total mass loss of less than 1 percent and a collected volatile condensable materials of less than 0.1 percent;
aligning graphene sheets within the epoxy graphene material in an in-plane orientation to produce aligned epoxy graphene material;
coating a structure with the aligned epoxy graphene material; and
curing the aligned epoxy graphene material.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exfoliating the graphene prior to depositing the graphene into a hardener.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein mixing comprises using a high shear mixer.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein using a high shear mixer comprises using an acoustic mixer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein coating a structure with the epoxy graphene material comprises using a robotic arm with a dispensing nozzle configured to align the graphene sheets in the in-plane orientation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein coating a structure comprises coating a structure with a layer of the epoxy graphene material having a thickness between 10 and 200 micrometers.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein coating a structure comprises coating a carbon-fiber reinforced polymer tank.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene is an amino-functionalized graphene sheet.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene is an amino-functionalized graphene oxide sheet.

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Iftime Gabriel
• Van Overmeere Quentin
• Johnson David Mathew

Classifications

• F17C2203/0646

  Aluminium · CPC title

• B05D7/227

  of containers, cans or the like · CPC title

• F17C2223/0161

  cryogenic, e.g. LNG, GNL, PLNG · CPC title

• F17C2203/0663

  in form of fibers or filaments · CPC title

• C08J2463/00

  Characterised by the use of epoxy resins; Derivatives of epoxy resins · CPC title