In this study, poly(amic acid) was prepared via a polycondensation reaction of 3,3'-dihydroxybenzidine and pyromellitic dianhydride in an N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone solution; reduced graphene oxide/polybenzoxazole (r-GO/PBO) composite films, which significantly increased the electrical conductivity, were successfully fabricated. GO was prepared from graphite using Brodie's method. The GO was used as nanofillers for the preparation of r-GO/PBO composites through an in situ polymerization. The addition of 50 wt% GO led to a significant increase in the electrical conductivity of the composite films by more than sixteen orders of magnitude compared with that of pure PBO films as a result of the electrical percolation networks in the r-GO during the thermal treatment at various temperatures within the films.

A fabrication method to improve the processability of thermoplastic carbon nanotube (CNT) mat composites was investigated by using in-situ polymerizable and low viscous cyclic butylene terephthalate oligomers. The electrical conductivity of the CNT mat composites strongly depended on the compression pressure, and the trend can be explained in terms of two cases, low and high compression pressure, respectively. High CNT mat content in the CNT mat composites and the surface of the CNT mat composites with fully contacted CNTs was achieved under high compression pressure, and direct contact between four probes and the surface of the CNT mat composites with fully contacted CNTs gave resistance of 2.1Ω. In this study the maximum electrical conductivity of the CNT mat composites, obtained under a maximum applied compression pressure of 27 MPa, was 11 904 S m-1, where the weight fraction of the CNT mat was 36.5%.

In this study, reduced graphene oxide/polyimide (r-GO/PI) composite films, which showed significant enhancement in their electrical conductivity, were successfully fabricated. GO was prepared from graphite using a modified Hummers method. The GO was used as a nanofiller material for the preparation of r-GO/PI composites by in-situ polymerization. An addition of 20 wt% of GO led to a significant decrease in the volume resistivity of composite films by less than nine orders of magnitude compared to that of pure PI films due to the electrical percolation networks of reduced GO created during imidization within the films. A tensile test indicated that the Young's modulus of the r-GO/PI composite film containing 20 wt% GO increased drastically from 2.3 GPa to 4.4 GPa, which was an improvement of approximately 84% compared to that of pure PI film. In addition, the corresponding tensile strength was found to have decreased only by 12%, from 113 MPa to 99 MPa.