Can strong carbon fiber be "spun" from graphene oxide sheets?

Researchers at the University of Rice in the United States used large pieces of graphene oxide flakes as the basic raw material to "spin" strong carbon fibers that are as hard to pull apart as the rest of the fiber when subjected to tension. Light aircraft, bulletproof fabric, etc. can be made of this carbon fiber to increase strength. The results of the study were published on the 8th in the online edition of Advanced Materials magazine.

Most fibers are likely to break where they are tied when pulled, but the new carbon fiber is unique because the knot is also very strong, in the words of the researchers, demonstrating "100 % knot efficiency." "It's very strange to see this," said Zhanmusi·tuer, a chemist at Les University. "The knot is just as strong as the rest of the fiber. This situation has never been seen on carbon fiber or polymer fiber before. "

This is due to a patent filed by Rice University a few years ago: the use of environmentally friendly processes to manufacture graphene oxide tablets with unique properties. Their average diameter is 22 microns, a quarter of the width of human hair, but they are huge compared with the petroleum-based asphalt particles currently used to make carbon fiber. "The asphalt particles are only 2 nanometers in size and our graphene oxide tablets are about 10,000 times larger. "The lead author of the research paper, Xiang Changsheng, a graduate student at Rice University, said.

Like asphalt particles, these graphene sheets are gathered together by the weak van der Waals force; However, the difference is that only the atom-thick graphene tablets have a large surface area. After being pulled into fibers, they are attached to each other, just like the scales on the fish body. The item length wins that the strength of the knot depends on the bending coefficient of the fiber, "because the bending coefficient of the graphene oxide is very low, it seems that the knot does not exist at all."

According to Tours, industrial carbon fiber, a steel-like ultra-light material, is used in a wide range of applications, from baseball clubs to bicycles to bombers, but its performance has not improved much over the decades because of its application. The chemical conditions are nearing the limit. The new carbon fiber is "woven" at room temperature and exhibits outstanding tensile strength and bending coefficient, which may become stronger after high temperature annealing.

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