Plasma-functionalized graphene fiber reinforced sulphoaluminate cement-based grouting materials

Abstract Fiber-reinforced cement-based grouting materials have aroused intensive attention due to the promising applications in coal mining. However, how to enable a fiber-cement grouting material with high mechanical strength and stability, and meanwhile with favorable toughness and electrical conductivity, still remains challenging. Herein, a facile and effective strategy to solve the problem was proposed by developing a plasma-functionalized graphene fiber (PGF) with the combined feature of excellent flexibility, good dispersion, high surface roughness and tensile strength, via the wet spinning and oxygen plasma etching. Thanks to the uniform distribution and strong interfacial interaction of PGFs in the cement matrix, the resultant PGF-sulphoaluminate cement grouting materials with water-cement ratio of 0.8 and 0.3% PGF dosage delivered the compressive and flexural strengths of 18.6 and 3.7 MPa after curing for 7 days, respectively, 1.1 and 1.3 times higher than that of control samples, respectively. Meanwhile, resulted from the formation of a continuous and homogeneous conductive network consisting of PGFs in the cement matrix, the composite featured a significant improvement of electrical conductivity. This work has shed light on new strategies for fabricating fiber-reinforced cement-based grouting materials with high mechanical strength, toughness and electrical conductivity toward future uses.