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  • One-Pot SOne-pot Synthesis of Mechanically Robust Hierarchical Graphene-Polyethylene Aerogelsynthesis of Mechanically Robust Hierarchical Graphene-Polyethylene Aerogels
Title: One-Pot SOne-pot Synthesis of Mechanically Robust Hierarchical Graphene-Polyethylene Aerogelsynthesis of Mechanically Robust Hierarchical Graphene-Polyethylene Aerogels
Fabricating mechanically robust graphene aerogels (GAs) without compromising their notable features including superelasticity, large surface area, high porosity, and low density is challenging. This work presents a new one-pot strategy based on ambient drying to fabricate a three-dimensional (3D) graphene-polyethylene aerogel (G-PEA) with a unique hierarchical porous structure, in which the highly porous polyethylene is encapsulated by graphene frameworks. The hierarchical G-PEA exhibited substantially enhanced compressive strength while maintaining low density and superelasticity comparable to those of bare GAs. The G-PEAs with 5 wt.% PE (G-PEA5) showed a significant improvement (up to 2083%) in compressive stress compared to bare GAs, which can be attributed to the porous PE support within the GA framework. The G-PEA5 retained 94% of its compressive stress after 100 compression cycles, which is still higher than that (~80%) of bare GAs, and maintained good elastic recovery. The designed hierarchical G-PEAs show great promise in the applications that require outstanding mechanical properties.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1923033
NSF-PAR ID:
10534214
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
SSRN
Date Published:
Format(s):
Medium: X
Institution:
University of Nevada Reno
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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