4.8 Article

Hierarchical toughening of bioinspired nacre-like hybrid carbon composite

Journal

CARBON
Volume 171, Issue -, Pages 409-416

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2020.09.041

Keywords

Hierarchical architecture; Carbon composite; Bioinspiration; Toughening

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [51871216, 51331007]
  2. LiaoNing Revitalization Talents Program
  3. Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS

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The study demonstrates the construction of multiscale micro/nano-architectures in a hybrid composite material containing two different carbon forms, showing remarkable mechanical efficiency with good damage tolerance and rising R-curve behavior. This verifies the potential of nacre-inspired designs for enhancing fracture toughness in carbon systems.
Replicating the architecture of natural nacre has become an important approach for enhancing the damage tolerance of man-made materials. Nevertheless, this is principally limited to systems composed of chemically different constituents and demonstrates a difficulty in realizing structural hierarchy at multiple length-scales. Here a proof of concept is presented about the implementation of bioinspired nacre-like designs in a hybrid composite of pure carbon comprising its two basic allotropic forms, i.e., natural graphite flakes and amorphous carbon from the carbonization of organics. Multiscale micro/nano-architectures with three levels of hierarchy were constructed in the composite based on the preferential alignment of graphite flakes using bidirectional freeze casting method. The composite exhibited a remarkable mechanical efficiency, specifically featured by good damage tolerance with rising R-curve behavior, owing to the activation of hierarchical toughening mechanisms at micro to nano length-scales. This verifies the potency of nacre-inspired designs for generating enhanced fracture toughness in carbon systems, even using simple raw materials, which is significant for promoting their structural applications. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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