It is urgent to fabricate a class of green plastics to substitute synthetic plastics with increasing awareness of sustainable development of an ecological environment and economy. In this work, a novel green plastic constructed from cellulose and functionalized graphene has been explored. The mechanical properties and thermal stability of the resultant cellulose/functionalized graphene composite plastics (CGPs) equal or even exceed those of synthetic plastics. Moreover, the in-plane thermal conductivity of CGPs can reach 9.0 W·m-1·K-1 with only 6 wt % functionalized graphene loading. These superior properties are attributed to the strong hydrogen-bonding interaction between cellulose and functionalized graphene, the uniform dispersion of functionalized graphene, and the alignment structure of CGPs. Given the promising synergistic performances and ecofriendly features of CGPs, we envisage that CGPs as novel green plastics could play important roles in thermal management devices.
Keywords: NH2/PEG/NH2; cellulose; graphene; green plastics; thermal conductivity.