Enhanced Electric Conductivity of Cement Composites by Functionalizing Graphene Oxide

This study has utilized self-assembled monolayers technology to improve electrical property of graphene-oxide, which has been seperated graphine powder through a chemical exfoliation. Aluminum sulfate (Al2(SO4)3) was applied on graphene-oxide as a reactant, and the fundamental research was carried out to apply on the self-sensing of cement-based construction structures. Electric resistance measurement result has shown that cement-composites with GO and Al-GO can be used as a conductor, electric resistance of GO and Al-GO contained composites improved by 10.2% and 15.9% respectively when compared to the standard cement-composite. Microstructure analyzation shown the formation of Al(OH)3 gel when Al-GO was added, which is speculated to result the smooth flow of current by improving the density of cement-composite. This implies that graphene-oxide has a possibility to be utilized as smart building materials and construction structure itself rather than just a structure.