LAUSR

Determination of the reliability and durability of polymers in structural applications is highly dependent on the resistance to time-dependent plastic deformation. In this study, creep behaviour and enhancement in creep resistance of polystyrene-graphene nanocomposites is investigated at low filler loading. Herein, 2D material (graphene) is synthesised by the liquid-phase exfoliation method (LPE) using the tetrahydrofuran (THF) solvent via batch sonication. Samples are characterised by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) for morphology analysis and X-rays Diffraction (XRD) for identification of polystyrene-graphene (PS-G) peaks in nanocomposites. Additionally, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is employed to quantify sheet’s thickness and Optical Microscopy (OM) to corroborate the dispersion of 2D sheets. The creep resistance of PS-G nanocomposites is measured at room temperature (25°C) by incorporating 2D sheets of flake length ∼359 μm with 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 wt.%. A significant enhancement in the time to withstand constant creep load (1 N) is observed. The creep resistance of the samples exhibits a maximum increase of 79%, 258.24%, 647.25%, 417.58% and 760.44%, respectively, compared to pristine polystyrene. This increase in creep resistance resulted from intense interfacial contact between polymer chains and filler accompanied by adequate scattering/dispersion in the polymer matrix.