Mechanical energy absorption of architecturally interlocked petal-schwarzites

Abstract

We carried out fully atomistic reactive molecular dynamics simulations to study the mechanical behavior of six newly proposed hybrid schwarzite-based structures (interlocked petal-schwarzites). Schwarzites are carbon crystalline nanostructures with negative Gaussian curvature created by mapping a TPMS (Triply Periodic Minimal Surface) with carbon rings containing six to eight atoms. Our simulations have shown that petal-schwarzite structures can withstand uni-axial compressive stress up to the order of GPa and can be compressed past 50 percent strain without structural collapse. Our most resistant hierarchical structure has a calculated compressive strength of 260 GPa and specific energy absorption (SEA) of 45.95 MJ/kg, while possessing a mass density of only 685 kg/m³. These results show that these structures could be excellent lightweight materials for applications that require mechanical energy absorption.