Strong Amorphous Carbon Prepared By Spark-Plasma Sintering C-60

The phase transition of fullerene C-60 under high pressure and high temperature has been widely studied, but the research on the spark-plasma sintering of C-60 is limited, and the mechanical properties of synthesized materials are still unknown. In this study, a series of amorphous carbon materials were synthesized by spark-plasma sintering fullerene C-60 at different temperatures. The structural characterizations showed that they were composed of multi-graphene fragments with different sizes, curvatures, and ordering degrees. The densities of the synthesized amorphous carbons were 1.3-1.4 g/cm(3), which were lower than the values for graphite, but the mechanical properties were excellent. The highest compressive strength, indentation hardness, and elastic recovery of the amorphous carbons synthesized at different temperatures could reach up to similar to 1.25 GPa, similar to 3.8 GPa, and similar to 85.5%, respectively, which are far better than the values for commercial isotropic graphite materials.