A new composite material of flaky graphene

Materials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes - one of the most durable and solid materials that are available to us now, says Professor Michael Strano, because their atoms are held together by carbon-carbon bonds, the strongest that exist in nature. Therefore, the researchers looked for a way to use these nanomaterials to increase the strength of composites, in a similar way as steel bars reinforce concrete.


The most difficult to insert these materials in a matrix of other materials in the right way. These sheets and tubes have a tendency to stick together, so just dip them in liquid adhesive will not help. MIT team's solution was to find a way to create a large number of layers arranged in perfect order, but so as not to have to do it all manually.



Scientists have used puff pastry technology: the dough is stretched and folded in half, then over it traversed a roller, and then folded in half again, and so on. Each time the number of layers increases exponentially, so that 20 million more than the folding will perfectly matched layers.

During the test, the researchers created a composite material with 320 layers of graphene. And we proved that even with a slight addition of the material graphene - less than 1/10 by weight - led to a noticeable increase in strength. The resulting materials were not only not as smooth as graphene, but also flexible, in contrast to the same Kevlar. This means that one can weave a protective fabric that stretched but not torn.