Enhanced elastic behavior of all-carbon composites reinforced by in situ synthesized morphed graphene

Abstract We present the mechanical properties of all-carbon composites reinforced with in situ incorporated morphed graphene nanostructures by means of high energy ball milling and spark plasma sintering. The composites demonstrate enhanced elasticity for carbon sp3/sp2 ratio ≈1/4. High resolution TEM characterization and molecular dynamics simulations show that this bonding type ratio is due mostly to the morphed graphene structures. Specifically, the presence of Rh6, crosslinked graphene-like, nanostructures is attributed to the enhanced elastic properties of these all-carbon composites. The improvements in mechanical properties is approximately 2 orders of magnitude when compared to similar composites produced with graphene.