Open AccessPhotocuring Graphene Oxide Liquid Crystals for High-Strength Structural Materials
Author(s) -
Keroles B. Riad,
Suong V. Hoa,
Paula Wood–Adams
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.2c02084
Subject(s) - graphene , microscale chemistry , materials science , oxide , spinning , filtration (mathematics) , composite material , graphene oxide paper , liquid crystal , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , optoelectronics , metallurgy , statistics , mathematics education , mathematics , engineering
Graphene is the strongest known material. However, the challenge of translating that strength from the microscale to the more useful macroscale remains unmet. Preparing solid structures from self-assembled graphene oxide liquid crystals has allowed the creation of paper and fibers with excellent mechanical properties. Conventionally, vacuum filtration, wet spinning, and freeze-drying are used to prepare such structures from graphene oxide liquid crystals. Here, we introduce photocuring as an additional option to create solid structures of self-assembled graphene oxide liquid crystals that allows for thicker samples and other shapes to be realized. The photocured graphene oxide paper prepared here exhibited mechanical properties comparable to those of benchmark samples prepared by vacuum filtration.