Graphene foam gets big and tough

A chunk of conductive graphene foam reinforced by carbon nanotubes can support more than 3,000 times its own weight and easily bounce back to its original height.

Better yet, it can be made in just about any shape and size, scientists from Rice University reported, demonstrating a screw-shaped piece of the highly conductive foam.

The three-dimensional structures were created from a powdered nickel catalyst, surfactant-wrapped multiwall nanotubes and sugar as a carbon source. The materials were mixed and the water evaporated; the resulting pellets were pressed into a steel die and then heated in a chemical vapor deposition furnace, which turned the available carbon into graphene.

After further processing to remove remnants of nickel, the result was an all-carbon foam in the shape of the die, in this case a screw. The method will be easy to scale up.

Read more at Rice University

Image Credit: Rice University

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