Large-deformation and high-strength amorphous porous carbon nanospheres

Abstract

Carbon is one of the most important materials extensively used in industry and our daily life. Crystalline carbon materials such as carbon nanotubes and graphene possess ultrahigh strength and toughness. In contrast, amorphous carbon is known to be very brittle and can sustain little compressive deformation. Inspired by biological shells and honeycomb-like cellular structures in nature, we introduce a class of hybrid structural designs and demonstrate that amorphous porous carbon nanospheres with a thin outer shell can simultaneously achieve high strength and sustain large deformation. The amorphous carbon nanospheres were synthesized via a low-cost, scalable and structure-controllable ultrasonic spray pyrolysis approach using energetic carbon precursors. In situ compression experiments on individual nanospheres show that the amorphous carbon nanospheres with an optimized structure can sustain beyond 50% compressive strain. Both experiments and finite element analyses reveal that the buckling deformation of the outer spherical shell dominates the improvement of strength while the collapse of inner nanoscale pores driven by twisting, rotation, buckling and bending of pore walls contributes to the large deformation.

Structure of Carbon Materials Explored by Local Transmission Electron Microscopy and Global Powder Diffraction Probes

“…In 1959 Ergun and Tiensuu [57] gave another interpretation of the XRD patterns of non-graphitising carbons. They showed that clusters of tetrahedrally-bonded carbon atoms give rise to diffraction bands in approximately the same angular region as the two-dimensional (10) and (11) reflections of graphene layers, that is at values s = 2sinθ/λ (θ is the scattering angle and λ is the wavelength) of about 0.5 Å −1 and 0.85 Å −1 , as can be seen in Figure 13. Therefore, they argued that from the broad, diffuse diffraction peaks of non-graphitising carbons it is very difficult to completely rule out the presence of diamond-like structures.…”

“…Nowadays, TEM is still a driving force for the structural studies of carbon materials and the development of their technology. It is especially worth mentioning recent advances in in situ and real-time TEM experiments which allow observing and recording the behaviour of carbons in different conditions, such as heating, stress, pressure, and electron beam [9][10][11][12][13].…”

Buckled Amorphous Hollow Carbon Spheres: Facile Fabrication, Buckling Process, and Applications as Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

“…Understanding the mechanical behavior of HCSs would provide important implications of the fundamental mechanisms on how to improve the structural durability of the devices and systems for engineering applications. 19 To date, there has been little reported work in this field. 20 Herein, we report the preparation of BHCSs based on the compression of HCSs with structural robustness.…”

Зависимость Механических Свойств Сорбентов От Размеров Нанопор

“…Например, микропористые структуры используются для удаления из биологических жидкостей продуктов небольшой молекулярной массы. В настоящее время известны разнообразные пористые углеродные микро-и наноструктуры [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Плотность таких структур колеб-лется от 0.26 до 2.2 g/сm 3 [2].…”