Enhanced in-plane mechanical properties of nanoporous graphene-carbon nanotube network

Abstract

Three dimensional graphene-carbon nanotube networks (3D-GC) have attracted great interests due to their superior thermal, optical, and hydrogen storage properties. In our work, the in-plane mechanical properties of nanoporous 3D-GC with different diameters of the joint carbon nanotube (CNT) and porosity have been studied. During in-plane tension, the fracture of 3D-GC first initiates at the heptagonal defects of the junctions between graphene sheets and CNTs where large tensile residual stress is observed. The in-plane tensile strength of 3D-GC decreases with the increasing of CNT parameter and porosity, and the tensile modulus is mainly determined by the porosity. Although the fracture stra..