The compression mechanical properties of graphene aerogel

¹ State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
² Explosion Protection and Emergency Disposal Technology Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education, Beijing, China
³ Advanced Technology Research Institute, Beijing Institute of Technology, Jinan, China
⁴ Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, China

^* Corresponding author: jxie@bit.edu.cn
^† Corresponding author: pwchen@bit.edu.cn

Published online: 9 September 2021

Abstract

Graphene aerogel (GA) samples, prepared by the Sol-Gel method, were tested under quasi-static and dynamical compression, and characterized via surface area analyzer and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the drying method has a significant influence on the sample’s microstructure as well as its mechanical compression properties. The supercritical CO2 dried sample has a notable higher specific surface area, and higher compression strength; although the freeze dried sample is much lighter than the supercritical CO₂ dried sample, it exhibits a nonlinear superelastic behavior and large compressibility with a reversible strain up to 94%; under the dynamic compression test, the supercritical CO₂ dried sample presents a negative Poisson’s ratio behavior whereas the flower-like failure pattern was observed for the freeze dried sample. GA, therefore, is a promising candidate for energy absorption purposes because of its very low density, high specific surface area and porous microstructure.