Computational prediction of electrical and thermal properties of graphene and BaTiO3 reinforced epoxy nanocomposites

Graphene based materials e.g., graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and graphene nano platelets (GNP) as well as Barium titanate (BaTiO3) are emerging reinforcing agents which upon mixing with epoxy provides composite materials with superior mechanical, electrical and thermal properties as well as shielding against electromagnetic (EM) radiations. Inclusion of the thesereinforcing agents shows improvedperformance;however, the extent of improvement has remained uncertain. In this study, a computational modelling approach was adopted using COMSOL Multiphysics software in conjunction with Bayesian statistical analysis to investigate the effects of including various filler materials e.g.,GO, RGO, GNP and BaTiO3 in influencing the direct current (DC) conductivity (σ), dielectric constant (ε) and thermal properties on the resulting epoxy polymer matrix composites. The simulations were performed for different volume percentage of the filler materials by varying the geometry of the filler material. It was observed that the content of GO, RGO, GNPs and the thickness of graphene nanoplatelets can alter the DC conductivity, dielectric constant, and thermal properties of the epoxy matrix. The lower thickness of GNPs was found to offer the larger value of DC conductivity, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity than rest of the graphene nanocomposites, while the RGO showed better dielectric constant value than neat epoxy, and graphenenanocomposites. Similarly, the percentage content and size (diameter) of BaTiO3nanoparticles were observed to alter the dielectric constant, DC conductivity and thermal properties of modified epoxy by several order of magnitude than neat epoxy. In this way, the higher diameter particles of BaTiO3showed better DC conductivity properties, dielectric constant value, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity.