The study highlights the first use of ammonia-functionalized graphene oxide (GO-NH₂) as an additive to enhance the features of polysulfone (PSF) matrix. Composite membrane materials with different ratios of GO-NH₂ (0.25, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 wt%) were obtained by phase inversion method. Subsequently structural and morphological characteristics were investigated by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Lastly, mechanical and thermogravimetric studies were performed in order to establish whether GO-NH₂ addition influenced PSF/GO-NH₂ composite material performance. Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and TEM revealed evenly dispersed GO-NH₂ within PSF/GO-NH₂ composite membrane material forming exfoliated structures for lower concentration of GO-NH₂. An enhancement in both mechanical and thermal characteristics was attained. The decomposition temperature at which the mass loss is 3%, of the composite membrane material with 1 wt% GO-NH₂ was increased with 7°C. Conversely, an increase in Young’s modulus from 246 MPa to 285 MPa was achieved with the addition of 1 wt% GO-NH₂ within the PSF matrix.

We show that graphene quantum dots (GQD) embedded in a semiconducting poly(3-hexylthiophene) polymeric matrix act as charge trapping nanomaterials. In plane current-voltage (I-V) measurements of thin films realized from this nanocomposite deposited on gold interdigitated electrodes revealed that the GQD enhanced dramatically the hole transport. I-V characteristics exhibited a strong nonlinear behavior and a pinched hysteresis loop, a signature of a memristive response. The transport properties of this nanocomposite were explained in terms of a trap controlled space charge limited current mechanism.