Recoverable Nanocarbon/Polymer Nanocomposite

摘要

The demand for lightweight and strong structures continues to rise especially for weight critical applications such as aerospace and automotive. It is also desired that the materials can recover after being deformed. In this work, we fabricated a special lightweight material, nanocarbon foam, and then reinforced the foam by infiltrating the thermoplastic polymer into the foam to form a nanocomposite. Such nanocomposite is lightweight, strong, and recoverable in both structure and property after deformation. In this work, we fabricated a special lightweight material, nanocarbon foam, and then reinforced the foam by infiltrating the thermoplastic polymer into the foam to form a nanocomposite. The strength of nanocomposite is more than 10 times higher than the foam while the density is increased less than 6 times. Heating the deformed nanocomposite to the temperature around the glass transition temperature range of polymer results in the full strain recovery of the nanocomposite. It is remarkable that the recovery in both structure and property can be repeated.