Intercalation superimposed graphene nanosheets

It is well known that graphene materials have excellent properties. The study found that it also has some new functional applications, such as reminding the owner of the project when the facility needs maintenance.

Researchers at the Leibniz Polymer Institute in Germany have developed an intelligent graphene coating that changes color to indicate where the damage or fracture is.

The researcher of the project said, "The global focus is on the research work of single-layer graphene, and a series of functional coating materials have been prepared. We have focused on the structural characteristics such as particle size and thickness of multilayer graphene nanosheets, and the variability of structural color is achieved for the first time by intercalating superimposed graphene nanosheets, which is sensitive to nanoscale mechanical deformations (such as microcracks) and can be applied to early warning of material failure."

Inspired by the light reflectance properties of fish scales, researchers have developed a coating that can enhance light in one particular band while weakening light in other bands. Through the technical design, the graphene tablets are arranged at a certain angle. If the graphene layer structure in the area is damaged, the red, yellow, and blue light of the three primary colors and their strength will be reflected, thus changing the color, while the undamaged area will not. This intelligent characteristic of changing color according to the degree of stress in a certain area can give some structural materials color characteristic code information appropriately, thus indicating the damage degree of a certain area.

"The potential industrial applications of this graphene coating include not only micro-inspection of structural materials such as vehicles, ships and bridges, but also areas such as intelligent building design and fashion textile manufacturing," the project team said. "

At present, the research project is still in the preliminary stage, and there is still a lot of research work to be done to solve technical problems such as transformation of results and parameter control in order to finally achieve industrial applications.

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