Extraordinary improvement of ablation resistance of carbon/phenolic composites reinforced with low loading of graphene oxide

The effectiveness of graphene oxide (GO) on improving the ablation resistance of composite is investigated by incorporating a low concentration of GO (0.1 wt%) into the carbon/phenolic (CF/PR). The X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses reveal that the superiority of GO-filled composite over the neat in terms of thermal resistance is associated with the promoted char yield of PR and graphitization of fibers by the addition of GO. Molecular dynamics simulations identify the GO inside the matrix, even a small concentration, as a nuclei agent for the graphitized crystal growth of carbonized PR. And the GO at the fiber-matrix interface can bond to the fibers at extreme ablation temperatures, which promotes the formation of the Stone-Thrower-Wales defect (xy plane) and sp(2) hybridization (z direction) at the graphene-fiber interface, and further increases the graphitization degree of fibers.