am5b01367_si_001.pdf (1.07 MB)
Strong and Electrically Conductive Graphene-Based Composite Fibers and Laminates
journal contribution
posted on 2015-05-27, 00:00 authored by Ivan Vlassiouk, Georgios Polizos, Ryan Cooper, Ilia Ivanov, Jong Kahk Keum, Felix Paulauskas, Panos Datskos, Sergei SmirnovGraphene is an ideal candidate for
lightweight, high-strength composite materials given its superior
mechanical properties (specific strength of 130 GPa and stiffness
of 1 TPa). To date, easily scalable graphene-like materials in a form
of separated flakes (exfoliated graphene, graphene oxide, and reduced
graphene oxide) have been investigated as candidates for large-scale
applications such as material reinforcement. These graphene-like materials
do not fully exhibit all the capabilities of graphene in composite
materials. In the current study, we show that macro (2 inch ×
2 inch) graphene laminates and fibers can be produced using large
continuous sheets of single-layer graphene grown by chemical vapor
deposition. The resulting composite structures have potential to outperform
the current state-of-the-art composite materials in both mechanical
properties and electrical conductivities (>8 S/cm with only 0.13%
volumetric graphene loading and 5 × 103 S/cm for pure
graphene fibers) with estimated graphene contributions of >10 GPa
in strength and 1 TPa in stiffness.