Permeation Behavior of Stretchable Graphene-Based Films for High Performance Gloves

Graphene-based ultra-thin films are gaining attention for their exceptional performance as molecular barriers. Understanding how water vapor and hazardous organic molecules permeate these films is key to applications in for personal or product protection. We propose the use of pre-wrinkled graphene-oxide-based nanosheet films as high-performance coatings on gloves due to their stretchability, breathability and strong barrier performance for many organic molecules. Graphene oxide films, however, lack water stability and sufficient mechanical strength for the glove application. To address this, we explore three alternative stabilization methods: high-loading GO-polymer composites, embedded "sandwich" structures, and textured stretchable GO-based coatings. We fabricated these three types of barrier architectures, studied their behaviors under bending, tensile stress, stretching and water immersion, and measured their permeability to water, hexane and toluene as model molecules of widely varying polarity. This work identified several film formulations that show promising barrier properties in combination with breathability and mechanical/immersion stability suitable for glove applications.