Influences of Thermal Treatment on the Dielectric Performances of Polystyrene Composites Reinforced by Graphene Nanoplatelets

Dielectric properties of composites near percolation threshold (fc) are often sensitive to thermal treatments, and the annealing temperature is usually associated with a polymer's rheological properties. In this study, the influences of the thermal treatment on dielectric properties are investigated for the polystyrene (PS) matrix composite reinforced by graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) fillers near fc. It can be found that the thermal treatment can not only increase the dielectric constant, but also decrease the dielectric loss for the PS/GNP composite. This interesting phenomenon possibly happens in the interfacial region of PS/GNP with the thickness about 4-6 nm according to the electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) results. The free volumes around the interface can be easily altered by the movement of polymeric segments after annealing at the glass transition temperature.