Improved energy absorption characteristics based on elastic polymer-modified porous material for multiple extreme mechanical impacts

Abstract

Energy absorbing materials are crucial for the protection of electronic devices in various applications. In particular, the protection of materials from multiple extreme mechanical impacts imposes stringent requirements on the characteristics of energy absorption and recoverability. In this paper, a novel design of composite material, elastic polymer-modified porous carbon, is proposed to meet such urgent requirements. At the micro level, the polymer fibers form an elastic skeleton in which porous carbon particles are enveloped. Due to such microstructure, the composite material exhibits excellent performance of energy absorption and recoverability simultaneously, which are validated via various experiments. Furthermore, the microphysical mechanism of its superior energy absorption characteristics is demonstrated theoretically. Additionally, the optimized mass proportions of the two composite phases are discussed. In general, this novel design of energy absorbing material improves the reliability of electronic devices and systems exposed to multiple extreme mechanical impacts.