Functional polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA)/graphene nanocomposite microcellular foams were prepared by blending of PMMA with graphene sheets followed by foaming with subcritical CO(2) as an environmentally benign foaming agent. The addition of graphene sheets endows the insulating PMMA foams with high electrical conductivity and improved electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding efficiency with microwave absorption as the dominant EMI shielding mechanism. Interestingly, because of the presence of the numerous microcellular cells, the graphene-PMMA foam exhibits greatly improved ductility and tensile toughness compared to its bulk counterpart. This work provides a promising methodology to fabricate tough and lightweight graphene-PMMA nanocomposite microcellular foams with superior electrical and EMI shielding properties by simultaneously combining the functionality and reinforcement of the graphene sheets and the toughening effect of the microcellular cells.

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A microstructure model for SBS and SIS triblock copolymers with hard domains as multifunctional reinforcing fillers is proposed. Based on this model and proposed mechanism of large deformations, the probability distribution function of the end-to-end vector for each constituent chain and the free energy of deformation for the total networks was calculated by the combination of statistical thermodynamics and kinetics. A new molecular theory of nonlinear visco-elasticity for SBS and SIS at large deformations is presented. It is successful in relating the viscoelastic state to molecular constitution by three important parameters (C100, C020, and C200) of the networks. The relations of stress to strain for four types of deformation, the elastic modulus and the constitutive equation for the stress relaxation were derived from this theory. It provides a theoretical foundation for studying the relationships of multiphase network structures and mechanical properties at large deformations. An excellent agreement between the theoretical relationships and experimental data from the experiments and the reference was obtained.

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