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Increasing the strength-to-weight ratio of injection moldable polymers can benefit a broad range of applications, such as automobiles, aircraft, and consumer electronic devices. This paper demonstrates that incorporating miniscule quantities (0.1 wt %) of gas-phase-synthesized graphene into acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS) can significantly increase the strength of injection-molded specimens by over 20%. The results transform our current understanding of the structure–property relationships of graphene-filled polymer-matrix nanocomposites because highly crumpled graphene sheets with nonfunctionalized surfaces and nanometer-scale lateral dimensions are shown to be more effective at strengthening ABS than flat graphene flakes with functionalized surfaces and micrometer-scale lateral dimensions. 

Abstract Barium titanate (BTO) is a ferroelectric material used in capacitors because of its high bulk dielectric constant. However, the impact of the size of BTO on its dielectric constant is not yet fully understood and is highly contested. Here, we present an investigation into the dielectric constant of BTO nanoparticles with diameters ranging between 50 and 500 nm. BTO nanoparticles were incorporated into acrylonitrile butadiene styrene and injection molded into parallel plate capacitors, which were used to determine nanocomposite dielectric constants. The dielectric constants of BTO nanoparticles were obtained by combining experimental measurements with computational results from COMSOL simulations of ABS-matrix nanocomposites containing BTO. The dielectric constant of BTO was observed to be relatively constant at nanoparticle diameters as small as 200 nm but sharply declined at smaller nanoparticle sizes. These results will be useful in the development of improved energy storage and power conditioning systems utilizing BTO nanoparticles. Graphical abstract