An innovative wood derived carbon-carbon nanotubes-pyrolytic carbon composites with excellent electrical conductivity and thermal stability

The functionality of wood has evolved with time to adapt to the emerging needs of society. Carbonized wood-based composites have attracted tremendous interest in the fields of aerospace, military power, electric power, and system electronic devices, especially at high temperatures. Nevertheless, their electrical conductivity and thermal stability characteristics are still far from satisfactory. Herein, an innovative wood-derived carbon-carbon nanotubes-pyrolytic carbon composites (WDC-CNTs-PyC) is successfully fabricated by chemical vapor deposition and chemical vapor infiltration. The combination of wood-derived carbon (WDC), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and pyrolytic carbon (PyC) has never been reported in any previous work. We have innovatively introduced PyC into the WDC by chemical vapor infiltration. CNTs promote the continuous deposition of PyC to form dense structures. WDC-CNTs-PyC demonstrates significant compressive strength (85.4 MPa) and excellent electrical conductivity (632 S cm–1). The weight loss rate of WDC-CNTs-PyC is 6% after heating at 500°C for 10 min in the air atmosphere. Furthermore, WDC-CNTs-PyC could resist oxyacetylene ablation above 2300 ℃ for 15 s. With excellent electrical conductivity, outstanding thermal stability, and mechanical properties, WDC-CNTs-PyC opens up a surprising strategy for efficiently fabricating various high-performance electronic device composites that could be used in high-temperature fields.