Fan Xu

Lightweight, Superelastic, and Mechanically Flexible Graphene/Polyimide Nanocomposite Foam for Strain Sensor Application.

The creation of superelastic, flexible three-dimensional (3D) graphene-based architectures is still a great challenge due to structure collapse or significant plastic deformation. Herein, we report a facile approach of transforming the mechanically fragile reduced graphene oxide (rGO) aerogel into superflexible 3D architectures by introducing water-soluble polyimide (PI). The rGO/PI nanocomposites are fabricated using strategies of freeze casting and thermal annealing. The resulting monoliths exhibit low density, excellent flexibility, superelasticity with high recovery rate, and extraordinary reversible compressibility. The synergistic effect between rGO and PI endows the elastomer with desirable electrical conductivity, remarkable compression sensitivity, and excellent durable stability. The rGO/PI nanocomposites show potential applications in multifunctional strain sensors under the deformations of compression, bending, stretching, and torsion.

Multifunctional Stiff Carbon Foam Derived from Bread

The creation of stiff yet multifunctional three-dimensional porous carbon architecture at very low cost is still challenging. In this work, lightweight and stiff carbon foam (CF) with adjustable pore structure was prepared by using flour as the basic element via a simple fermentation and carbonization process. The compressive strength of CF exhibits a high value of 3.6 MPa whereas its density is 0.29 g/cm(3) (compressive modulus can be 121 MPa). The electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness measurements (specific EMI shielding effectiveness can be 78.18 dB·cm(3)·g(-1)) indicate that CF can be used as lightweight, effective shielding material. Unlike ordinary foam structure materials, the low thermal conductivity (lowest is 0.06 W/m·K) with high resistance to fire makes CF a good candidate for commercial thermal insulation material. These results demonstrate a promising method to fabricate an economical, robust carbon material for applications in industry as well as topics regarding environmental protection and improvement of energy efficiency.

Shape-memory polymer nanocomposites with a 3D conductive network for bidirectional actuation and locomotion application

Electrical stimulation of shape-memory polymers (SMPs) has many advantages over thermal methods; creating an efficient conductive path through the bulk polymers is essential for developing high performance electroactive systems. Here, we show that a three-dimensional (3D) porous carbon nanotube sponge can serve as a built-in integral conductive network to provide internal, homogeneous, in situ Joule heating for shape-memory polymers, thus significantly improving the mechanical and thermal behavior of SMPs. As a result, the 3D nanocomposites show a fast response and produce large exerting forces (with a maximum flexural stress of 14.6 MPa) during shape recovery. We further studied the construction of a double-layer composite structure for bidirectional actuation, in which the shape change is dominated by the temperature-dependent exerting force from the top and bottom layer, alternately. An inchworm-type robot is demonstrated whose locomotion is realized by such bidirectional shape memory. Our large stroke shape-memory nanocomposites have promising applications in many areas including artificial muscles and bionic robots.

Stiff, Thermally Stable and Highly Anisotropic Wood-Derived Carbon Composite Monoliths for Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding materials for electronic devices in aviation and aerospace not only need lightweight and high shielding effectiveness, but also should withstand harsh environments. Traditional EMI shielding materials often show heavy weight, poor thermal stability, short lifetime, poor tolerance to chemicals, and are hard-to-manufacture. Searching for high-efficiency EMI shielding materials overcoming the above weaknesses is still a great challenge. Herein, inspired by the unique structure of natural wood, lightweight and highly anisotropic wood-derived carbon composite EMI shielding materials have been prepared which possess not only high EMI shielding performance and mechanical stable characteristics, but also possess thermally stable properties, outperforming those metals, conductive polymers, and their composites. The newly developed low-cost materials are promising for specific applications in aerospace electronic devices, especially regarding extreme temperatures.

Variable densification of reduced graphene oxide foam into multifunctional high-performance graphene paper

Super-flexible, electrically and thermally conductive graphene-based papers are in great demand in the fields of electronics and supercapacitors. However, the applications of graphene-based papers are limited either by their brittleness, small scale, or by their unsatisfactory thermal conductivity. Conventionally, such papers are fabricated by vacuum-assisted filtration, direct evaporation, electrospray coating, or wet spinning. Here we propose a novel strategy, namely, direct densification of reduced graphene oxide foam, to fabricate large-scale multifunctional graphene papers. The graphene paper density could be adjusted by applying different loads. The densities of the graphene papers varied from 0.32 g cm−3 to 1.85 g cm−3. The thermal conductivity, tensile stress, electrical conductivity and electromagnetic interface shielding effectiveness increased with an increase in the density of the graphene paper. When the density of the graphene paper reached 1.85 g cm−3, the tensile stress was up to 50.4 MPa with strain of 4%, the thermal conductivity was 1103 W m−1 K−1 at room temperature and there was high electrical conductivity of 1.1 × 105 S m−1, as well as an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness of 77.2 dB. Our new strategy is very promising in terms of controlling the thickness, density, and size of graphene paper. Our graphene paper has very high potential for applications.

Superflexible Interconnected Graphene Network Nanocomposites for High-Performance Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Graphene-enhanced polymer matrix nanocomposites are attracting ever increasing attention in the electromagnetic (EM) interference (EMI) shielding field because of their improved electrical property. Normally, the graphene is introduced into the matrix by chemical functionalization strategy. Unfortunately, the electrical conductivity of the nanocomposite is weak because the graphene nanosheets are not interconnected. As a result, the electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of the nanocomposite is not as excellent as expected. Interconnected graphene network shows very good electrical conduction property, thus demonstrates excellent electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness. However, its brittleness greatly limits its real application. Here, we propose to directly infiltrate flexible poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) into interconnected reduced graphene network and form nanocomposite. The nanocomposite is superflexible, light weight, enhanced mechanical and improved electrical conductive. The nanocomposite is so superflexible that it could be tied as spring-like sucker. Only 1.07 wt % graphene significantly increases the tensile strengths by 64% as compared to neat PDMS. When the graphene weight percent is 3.07 wt %, the nanocomposite has the more excellent electrical conductivity up to 103 S/m, thus more outstanding EMI shielding effectiveness of around 54 dB in the X-band are achieved, which means that 99.999% EM has been shielded by this nanocomposite. Bluetooth communication testing with and without our nanocomposite confirms that our flexible nanocomposite has very excellent shielding effect. This flexible nanocomposite is very promising in the application of wearable devices, as electromagnetic interference shielding shelter.

Superlight, Mechanically Flexible, Thermally Superinsulating, and Antifrosting Anisotropic Nanocomposite Foam Based on Hierarchical Graphene Oxide Assembly

Lightweight, high-performance, thermally insulating, and antifrosting porous materials are in increasing demand to improve energy efficiency in many fields, such as aerospace and wearable devices. However, traditional thermally insulating materials (porous ceramics, polymer-based sponges) could not simultaneously meet these demands. Here, we propose a hierarchical assembly strategy for producing nanocomposite foams with lightweight, mechanically flexible, superinsulating, and antifrosting properties. The nanocomposite foams consist of a highly anisotropic reduced graphene oxide/polyimide (abbreviated as rGO/PI) network and hollow graphene oxide microspheres. The hierarchical nanocomposite foams are ultralight (density of 9.2 mg·cm-3) and exhibit ultralow thermal conductivity of 9 mW·m-1·K-1, which is about a third that of traditional polymer-based insulating materials. Meanwhile, the nanocomposite foams show excellent icephobic performance. Our results show that hierarchical nanocomposite foams have promising applications in aerospace, wearable devices, refrigerators, and liquid nitrogen/oxygen transportation.