In situ reduction of graphene oxide to improve the thermal and wettability properties of urea-melamine-modified phenol formaldehyde resin composites

In this article, the samples of graphene oxide-urea-melamine-modified phenol formaldehyde resin (GO/UMPF) were prepared by in situ polymerization and co-condensation reactions with enhanced properties. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Xray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy (Raman), and x-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses shown that the graphene oxide (GO) reduced by urea-melamine-modified phenol formaldehyde resin (UMPF). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical investigation were used to analyze the morphology and dispersibility of GO/UMPF. Thermogravimetry analysis (TG) and water contact angle (WCA) were used to research the thermal and anti-wettability performances of GO/UMPF with different GO contents. The results presented that the GO was reduced to reduced graphene oxide (RGO) due to phenol and adhesive phenol on the surface of RGO, which leads to the generation of UMPF on the RGO cover and the well dispersibility of RGO/UMPF solution. The RGO has improved the thermal and anti-wettability properties of UMPF significantly. It was found that only 0.5 wt % loading of GO could increase the carbon residual value of pure UMPF by 20%. WCA of GO/UMPF increased by 19.23 degrees with the GO loading increasing to 0.3 wt%.