美国科学家提出，在陶瓷材料里掺入纳米材料“白色石墨烯”，可大幅提升陶瓷材料的强度、韧性以及耐热、耐辐射等能力，有潜力用于核工业、航天等需要高性能复合材料的领域。
    白色石墨烯是六方氮化硼的别名，它是二维材料家族的一员，结构与石墨烯相似，是六边形网格组成的超薄平面，但与石墨烯不同的是，其中的原子不是碳原子而是氮原子和硼原子。
    美国赖斯大学科学家说，他们详细分析了白色石墨烯与雪硅钙石结合的情况。雪硅钙石是一种含水的硅酸钙晶体，有着层状结构，可用于生产陶瓷和水泥。仅有一个原子厚的白色石墨烯层能水平地插入雪硅钙石的层状结构之间，形成牢固的夹心结构。
    模拟计算显示，白色石墨烯层能释放复合材料所受的力，使其强度比雪硅钙石高3倍，刚度，即抵抗弹性变形的能力高出约25%，不像普通陶瓷材料那样容易碎裂。另外，材料的耐热和耐辐射性能也有明显提升。
    相关论文日前发表在美国化学学会的《应用材料与界面》杂志上。研究人员说，这一思路可用于设计新型多功能复合材料，其他二维材料可能也有类似作用。

American scientists proposed that the incorporation of nanomaterial "white graphene" into ceramic materials can greatly improve the strength, toughness, heat resistance, radiation resistance and other capabilities of ceramic materials, and has the potential to be used in the nuclear industry, aerospace and other high-performance composite materials field.

    White graphene is an alias for hexagonal boron nitride. It is a member of a family of two-dimensional materials. Its structure is similar to graphene. It is an ultra-thin plane composed of hexagonal grids, but unlike graphene, the atoms in it Not carbon atoms but nitrogen and boron atoms.

    Scientists at Rice University in the United States said they analyzed in detail how white graphene binds to tobermorite. Tobermorite is an aqueous calcium silicate crystal with a layered structure that is used in the production of ceramics and cement. Only one-atom-thick white graphene layers can be inserted horizontally between the tobermorite layers, forming a strong sandwich.

    Simulation calculations show that the white graphene layer can release the force on the composite, making it three times stronger than tobermorite, and about 25% more rigid, which is the ability to resist elastic deformation, not as easy as ordinary ceramic materials. shatter. In addition, the heat resistance and radiation resistance of the material are also significantly improved.

    The paper was recently published in the American Chemical Society's journal Applied Materials and Interfaces. The idea could be used to design new multifunctional composites, the researchers say, and other 2D materials may have similar effects.