Evaldo Corat

GRAPHENE AEROGELS DEVELOPMENT FOR AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS

Abstract:

Graphene science and applications have emerged and developed a lot in recent years, with a considerable increase in its availability and commercialization, mainly for graphene produced by a non-oxidative exfoliation. Graphene aerogels (GA) are a new class of solid, extremely lightweight made from graphene. The GA has a porous structure with a specific mass of only a few g/L, that may be used for thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, and many other applications from clothing and footwear to military and aerospace vehicles. Most GA is made from graphene oxide (GO). GO has a natural tendency to form a gel in water, and its reduction may form a graphene hydrogel. Freeze-drying the hydrogel yields the simplest GA. In this presentation, we show the GA developments at the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil. Besides the traditional GO route, the development includes alternative chemical reduction and the use of emulsion to control the internal porosity. Including chitosan as a gelling alternative produced two new materials, one using never-oxidized graphene, and the other in mixtures with GO. The thermal characterization of the different materials will be discussed.

Biography:

Evaldo Corat holds a degree in Physics from the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (1982), a master’s degree in Physics from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (1986), and a Ph.D. in Physics from the Technological Institute of Aeronautics with a visiting associate at California Institute of Technology (1993). He is currently a senior researcher at the Coordination of Research and Technological Development at the National Institute for Space Research, in Brazil. He has experience in the area of Carbon Materials produced by Chemical Vapor Deposition, working mainly on the following topics: CVD diamond, thin films, thick films, adhesion and interfaces, nanodiamonds, diamond-like carbon (DLC), carbon nanotubes, and graphenes.