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High-content graphene nanoplatelet reinforced aluminum composites produced by ball milling and hot extrusion

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Abstract

Due to the high specific surface area of graphene, the effective incorporation of high-content graphene in metals is challenging. Here, aluminum composites with graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) content up to 5.0 vol% were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of blended powders with various ball milling regimes and subsequent hot extrusion. The effects of GNP distribution state on the properties of GNP/Al composite were investigated. 5.0 vol% GNPs were uniformly dispersed in aluminum matrix by high-speed ball milling (HSBM) process, but with damage GNPs due to the too high energy input. By contrast, the wellstructured and dispersed GNPs in aluminum powders were obtained via shift-speed ball milling (SSBM). The clear GNP-Al interface in extruded SSBM composite was attributed to well-structured GNPs. As a result, the yield strength (YS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of composite produced by SSBM reached 279 and 303 MPa, which are 166% and 116% higher than those of monolithic Al. This demonstrated that it may be promising to introduce high-content GNPs with tailorable interface in Al alloys via modified ball milling technique and hot extrusion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Zhong Zheng, XueXi Zhang, JianChao Li & Lin Geng

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  1. Zhong Zheng
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  2. XueXi Zhang
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  3. JianChao Li
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  4. Lin Geng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to XueXi Zhang.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB0703103), and Guangdong Province Key Area R&D Program (Grant No. 2019B010942001).

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Zheng, Z., Zhang, X., Li, J. et al. High-content graphene nanoplatelet reinforced aluminum composites produced by ball milling and hot extrusion. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 63, 1426–1435 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-020-1670-4

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