Light, Superelastic, Electrically Conductive, and Flame-Retardant Graphene / ALD Ceramic Metamaterial

Researcher from Lanzhou University (China) and Purdue University (USA) has developed a new ceramic/graphene wonder metamaterial (GCM) with microstructure-derived superelasticity and structural robustness is achieved by designing hierarchical honeycomb microstructures

The GCM is composited by two brittle constituents (graphene and ceramic) assembled in multi-nanolayer cellular walls. The GCM demonstrates a sequence of multifunctional properties simultaneously that have not been reported for ceramics and ceramics–matrix–composite structures, such as: 

• flyweight density
• 80% reversible compressibility
• high fatigue resistance
• high electrical conductivity
• excellent thermal-insulation/flame-retardant performance simultaneously. 

All details can be find in the Advanced Materials publication below. According to the suppoirting information the Al2O3 ceramic depositions were performed in an Utratech Fiji F200 ALD system (pictured above) at 250 C using trimethylaluminum (TMA) and H2O as the aluminum and oxygen source, respectively.

Flyweight, Superelastic, Electrically Conductive, and Flame-Retardant 3D Multi-Nanolayer Graphene/Ceramic Metamaterial
Qiangqiang Zhang et al
Adv. Mater., DOI: 10.1002/adma.201605506