A new-structured nanocarbon cushion with highly impact-resistant properties

Abstract

Compared with traditional impact-resistant materials, nanocarbon materials have the advantages such as light weight, large specific volume for energy dissipation and their exceptional thermal stability for the extreme-environmental working potentials. However, based on the commonly used fabrication method, the general nanocarbon structures (e.g. carbon nanotube (CNT) array) are always constructed with the weak interaction between units. Therefore, when they are subjected to impact, the impact energy cannot be transferred throughout the whole loose and discontinuous structure efficiently, which results in the degradation of their impact-resistant capabilities. To address the above issue, we fabricated a nanocarbon “cushion” with the combination of a diamond like carbon (DLC) film and multi-wall CNT (MWCNT) array. The DLC film was deposited successfully onto the as-grown MWCNT array through enhanced glow discharge plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition (EGD-PIII&D) method to form a continuous upper layer which is vital to distribute and transfer the impact energy loading. The new nanocarbon system has high specific dissipated energy up to ∼2.22 kJ/m3, which is almost twice as much as that of the commercial polyurethane sponge. We anticipate that this study will provide new insights to develop novel nanocarbon materials for impact resistance in high-tech edge applications.