Mechanical properties of graphene oxide-polyacrylamide composites before and after swelling in water

Polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels have been proposed for use as promising biomaterials in biomedical and tissue engineering but their poor mechanical and water-retention properties have hindered their development. Graphene oxide (GO), an excellent nanofiller, was added to PAAm to produce mechanically strong GO-PAAm composites. The free radical crosslinking copolymerization method was used with GO content varying in the range between 5 and 50 A mu l of GO. The mechanical properties of the GO-PAAm composites are measured by compressive test, revealing a decrease in the shear modulus and toughness of the composites above 8 A mu l of GO by increasing GO content.