A review of covetics - current understanding and future perspectives
Covetics are a novel class of metal-carbon composites traditionally fabricated in an induction furnace with high power electrical current in the liquid metal-carbon mixture. The electrical current facilitates chemical conversion of carbon feedstock into graphene-metal crystalline structures. We expl...
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| Published in | Nanoscale advances Vol. 5; no. 1; pp. 11 - 26 |
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| Main Authors | , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
England
RSC
20.12.2022
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| Subjects | |
| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Covetics are a novel class of metal-carbon composites traditionally fabricated in an induction furnace with high power electrical current in the liquid metal-carbon mixture. The electrical current facilitates chemical conversion of carbon feedstock into graphene-metal crystalline structures. We explore the synthesis mechanism and hypothesize that carbon-metal species, rather than purely-carbon ions, are the reactant species driving the covetic reaction. Experimental mechanical and electrical property characterization in aluminum, silver, and copper covetics demonstrates improved tensile, hardness, and conductivity of covetic metals over pure metal controls. The literature proves that significantly improved material properties are possible with homogeneously distributed graphitic carbon in metal. High resolution transmission electron microscopy shows stripe, multidirectional, and alternating carbon-metal plane lattice structure nanocarbon patterns for aluminum, copper, and silver covetics, respectively, as well as high- and low-carbon concentration regions. Covetic Raman spectra and theoretical calculations indicate characteristic graphene signatures and the possibility of aluminum-graphene and silver-graphene bonding. This review consolidates the current literature and provides new avenues for research.
Graphene forms in liquid aluminum under ionizing current within a graphite crucible. Cations generated at the crucible anode, migrate through liquid aluminum, aggregate at the cathode, and form graphene-aluminum covetics. |
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| Bibliography: | Kätchen K. Lachmayr received her PhD in chemistry in 2020 from University of Maryland, College Park under the advisement of Prof. Lawrence Sita. She is now a senior research scientist with Prof. Steve Lustig in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, working on the synthesis of two-dimensional polymers. Devyesh Rana received his B.S. from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University and M.S. from the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering, Cornell University in 2011 and 2012, respectively. He is now a PhD Candidate at Northeastern University in the Steve Lustig lab. His research has focused on understanding chemical synthesis using molecular modeling. Steve Lustig joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University as an associate professor in 2016. Before moving to Boston, he was an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where he taught statistical thermodynamics, polymer physics and green engineering. While teaching at the University of Delaware he was a principal investigator at the DuPont Central Research & Development laboratories at Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware for 26 years. In 2013 he was awarded the AIChE Industrial Research & Development Institute Award. ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 content type line 23 ObjectType-Review-1 |
| ISSN: | 2516-0230 2516-0230 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/d2na00500j |