Highly dispersed graphene ribbons produced from ZnO–C core–shell nanorods and their use as a filler in polyimide composites

Abstract

Long and few-layer thickness graphene ribbons (GRs) were fabricated through an efficient process from a well-ordered array of ZnO–C core–shell hexagonal nanorods that were formed by thermally heating zinc acetate dihydrate in a sealed chamber. The lengths and widths of the GRs were as high as ∼50 μm and 100–400 nm, respectively. The GRs could be highly dispersed (∼2 mg mL⁻¹) in 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone and exhibited a good electrical conductivity (5107 S m⁻¹). The highly dispersed and highly conductive GRs were applied to the fabrication of a GR–polyimide composite film that exhibited good mechanical properties while preserving the film transparency.