Abstract
Graphene holds promise for thin, ultralightweight, and high-performance nanoelectromechanical transducers. However, graphene-only devices are limited in size due to fatigue and fracture of suspended graphene membranes. Here, a lightweight, flexible, transparent, and conductive bilayer composite of polyetherimide and single-layer graphene is prepared and suspended on the centimeter scale with an unprecedentedly high aspect ratio of 105. The coupling of the two components leads to mutual reinforcement and creates an ultrastrong membrane that supports 30 000 times its own weight. Upon electromechanical actuation, the membrane pushes a massive amount of air and generates high-quality acoustic sound. The energy efficiency is ≈10–100 times better than state-of-the-art electrodynamic speakers. The bilayer membrane's combined properties of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, optical transparency, thermal stability, and chemical resistance will promote applications in electronics, mechanics, and optics.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2004053 |
| Journal | Advanced Materials |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 14 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH
Funding
The authors thank Meir Shaashua, Gilad Keren, and Dr. Jane Frommer for useful discussions and suggestions for the device acoustic characterization. The authors acknowledge use of facilities within the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) in the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech (VT). This research was partially funded by BIRD Energy, a U.S.–Israel binational program (Project Number 7080), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israel Ministry of Energy, and the Israel Innovation Authority, managed by the U.S.–Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. This material is based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR‐1752611. All data is available in the main text or the supplementary materials. The authors thank Meir Shaashua, Gilad Keren, and Dr. Jane Frommer for useful discussions and suggestions for the device acoustic characterization. The authors acknowledge use of facilities within the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory (NCFL) in the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech (VT). This research was partially funded by BIRD Energy, a U.S.–Israel binational program (Project Number 7080), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israel Ministry of Energy, and the Israel Innovation Authority, managed by the U.S.–Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. This material is based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. DMR-1752611. All data is available in the main text or the supplementary materials.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| BIRD Energy | |
| Israel Innovation Authority | |
| U.S.-Israel Binational Industrial Research and Development | |
| National Science Foundation | DMR‐1752611, 1752611 |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| BIRD Foundation | |
| Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science | |
| Ministry of Energy, Israel |
Keywords
- acoustics
- electromechanics
- graphene
- membranes
- polymers
