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

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 met-allurgy 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.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study aimed to develop an Al-GNP composite to improve its mechanical properties. A series of Al-GNP composites were fabricated by varying the levels of GNPs, and the best enhancement in mechanical properties was achieved with 0.5 wt% GNP doping.