Lightweight acoustic hyperbolic paraboloid diaphragms with graphene through self-assembly nanoarchitectonics

Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2024 Nov 19;25(1):2421757. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2024.2421757. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The paper presents a study on the fabrication of a lightweight acoustic hyperbolic paraboloid (HyPar) diaphragm using self-assembly nanoarchitectonics. The diaphragm is composed of a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) network combined with graphene oxide (GO) nanolayers. Spray coating is employed as a fabrication method, providing a simple and cost-effective approach to create large-scale curved diaphragms. The results demonstrate that the PAN/GO diaphragm exhibits acoustic performance comparable to a commercially available banana pulp diaphragm while significantly reducing weight and thickness. Notably, the graphene-based diaphragm is 15 times thinner and 8 times lighter than the commercial banana pulp diaphragm. This thinner and lighter nature of the graphene-based diaphragm offers advantages in applications where weight and size constraints are critical, such as in portable audio devices or acoustic sensors.

Keywords: Graphene oxide; acoustic diaphragm; hyperbolic paraboloid shape; nanoarchitectonics; polyacrylonitrile fibres.

Plain language summary

This paper introduces a novel fabrication of a lightweight graphene-based acoustic HyPar diaphragm using self-assembly nanoarchitectonics, achieving significantly reduced thickness and weight while maintaining high acoustic performance.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Education (Singapore) through the Research Centre of Excellence program (Award EDUN C-33-18-279-V12, Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials). XJ and AG are indebted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for the financial support [grant number: 431073172].