{"id":8264,"date":"2013-07-17T09:04:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T08:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/?p=8264"},"modified":"2013-07-17T09:04:20","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T08:04:20","slug":"rice-university-researchers-tying-carbon-fibre-in-knots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.compositestoday.com\/2013\/07\/rice-university-researchers-tying-carbon-fibre-in-knots\/","title":{"rendered":"Rice University Researchers Tying Carbon Fibre in Knots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Large flakes of graphene oxide are the essential ingredient in a new recipe for robust carbon fibre created at Rice University.<\/p>\n

The fibre spun at Rice is unique for the strength of its knots. Most fibres are most likely to snap under tension at the knot, but Rice\u2019s fibre demonstrates what the researchers refer to as \u201c100 percent knot efficiency,\u201d where the fibre is as likely to break anywhere along its length as at the knot.<\/p>\n

The material could be used to increase the strength of many products that use carbon fibre, like composites for strong, light aircraft or fabrics for bulletproof apparel, according to the researchers.<\/p>\n

Credit goes to the unique properties of graphene oxide flakes created in an environmentally friendly process patented by Rice a few years ago. The flakes that are chemically extracted from graphite seem small. They have an average diameter of 22 microns, a quarter the width of an average human hair. But they\u2019re massive compared with the petroleum-based pitch used in current carbon fibre.<\/p>\n

Like with pitch, the weak van der Waals force holds the graphene flakes together. Unlike pitch, the atom-thick flakes have an enormous surface area and cling to each other like the scales on a fish when pulled into a fibre. The wet-spinning process is similar to one recently used to create highly conductive fibres made of nanotubes, but in this case Xiang just used water as the solvent rather than a super acid.<\/p>\n

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