Compressed glassy carbon: An ultrastrong and elastic interpenetrating graphene network

Carbon's unique ability to have both sp² and sp³ bonding states gives rise to a range of physical attributes, including excellent mechanical and electrical properties. We show that a series of lightweight, ultrastrong, hard, elastic, and conductive carbons are recovered after compressing sp²-hybridized glassy carbon at various temperatures. Compression induces the local buckling of graphene sheets through sp³ nodes to form interpenetrating graphene networks with long-range disorder and short-range order on the nanometer scale. The compressed glassy carbons have extraordinary specific compressive strengths-more than two times that of commonly used ceramics-and simultaneously exhibit robust elastic recovery in response to local deformations. This type of carbon is an optimal ultralight, ultrastrong material for a wide range of multifunctional applications, and the synthesis methodology demonstrates potential to access entirely new metastable materials with exceptional properties.