Fabrication of efficient aluminium/graphene nanosheets (Al-GNP) composite by powder metallurgy for strength applications

Abstract

The advancement in material science is the need of the hour to generate efficient and lightweight materials for diverse technological fields, e.g., automobile, aerospace, naval, and defence. Herein, we have attempted to develop an Al-GNP based composite to achieve superior mechanical properties. A variety of Al-GNP composites were developed by varying the levels of GNPs from 0 wt% to 1 wt%. With the help of ball-milling based powder metallurgy technique, an Al-GNP composite with superior mechanical properties has been fabricated. Fascinatingly, the developed material exhibit uniform dispersion of GNPs with intact graphitic properties and excellent compressive/tensile strength. Out of developed composites, Al- 0.5 wt% GNP was the best in enhancing the mechanical properties of Al. An enhancement of ∼70%, and ∼73% was observed in the compressive strength, and hardness of the pure Al metal due to addition of 0.5 wt% GNPs and 135% enhancement in UTS due to addition of 0.35 wt% GNPs respectively.

Keywords

• Aluminium
• Graphene
• Composite
• Powder Metallurgy
• Compressive Strength
• Tensile strength