Stacking up the filler material

Abstract

Composites In composite materials, a strong or stiff filler is added to a softer matrix to create a combined material with better mechanical or electrical properties. To minimize the filler content, it needs to be uniformly distributed in the composite, which is particularly challenging for nanoscale materials. Liu et al. alternately stacked sheets of graphene and polycarbonate to make a base composite. By further cutting and stacking, up to 320 aligned layers were made with a very uniform filler distribution. Alternatively, the initial stack could be rolled into a rod. In both cases, the properties exceeded what might be expected from a simple combination of the two materials. Science , this issue p. [364][1] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaf4362