How do you make wonder material graphene 3D and super-elastic? Structure it like cork.

As well as its exotic conducting properties, graphene – a single-atom thick arrangement of carbon atoms – is extraordinarily light and strong. But when stacked to form thicker materials, it turns brittle, limiting its uses.

Impressed by the elasticity of cork, which has a honeycomb structure, Dan Li of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and colleagues dissolved graphene oxide in water and froze it. The resulting ice crystals moulded the material into a honeycomb.

When the water was removed, the graphene left behind had a cork-like structure and was super-elastic, bouncing back to its original size after being compressed by 80 per cent.


Super-elastic graphene could form the basis of flexible electronics and batteries, or conductive biological implants.

Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2251