We report a radio frequency (RF) sensor that exploits tunable attenuators and phase shifters to achieve high-sensitivity and broad band frequency tunability. Three frequency bands are combined to enable sensor operations from ∼20 MHz to ∼38 GHz. The effective quality factor ( ) of the sensor is as high as ∼3.8 × 10 with 200 l of water samples. We also demonstrate the measurement of 2-proponal-water-solution permittivity at 0.01 mole concentration level from ∼1 GHz to ∼10 GHz. Methanol-water solution and de-ionized water are used to calibrate the RF sensor for the quantitative measurements.

Graphene with ultrahigh intrinsic strength and excellent thermal physical properties has the potential to be used as the reinforcement of many kinds of composites. Here, we show that very high tensile strength can be obtained in the copper matrix composite reinforced by reduced graphene oxide (RGO) when micro-layered structure is achieved. RGO-Cu powder with micro-layered structure is fabricated from the reduction of the micro-layered graphene oxide (GO) and Cu(OH)2 composite sheets, and RGO-Cu composites are sintered by spark plasma sintering process. The tensile strength of the 5 vol.% RGO-Cu composite is as high as 608 MPa, which is more than three times higher than that of the Cu matrix. The apparent strengthening efficiency of RGO in the 2.5 vol.% RGO-Cu composite is as high as 110, even higher than that of carbon nanotube, multilayer graphene, carbon nano fiber and RGO in the copper matrix composites produced by conventional MLM method. The excellent tensile and compressive strengths, high hardness and good electrical conductivity are obtained simultaneously in the RGO-Cu composites. The results shown in the present study provide an effective method to design graphene based composites with layered structure and high performance.

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We synthesized CuZr/Cu multilayers and performed nanoindentation testing to explore the dependence of plastic deformation modes on the thickness of CuZr layers. The Cu layers were 18 nm thick and the CuZr layers varied in thickness from 4 nm to 100 nm. We observed continuous plastic co-deformation in the 4 nm and 10 nm CuZr − 18 nm Cu multilayers and plastic-induced shear instability in thick CuZr layers (>20 nm). The plastic co-deformation is ascribed to the nucleation and interaction of shear transformation zones in CuZr layers at the adjacent interfaces, while the shear instability is associated with the nucleation and propagation of shear bands in CuZr layers. Shear bands are initialized in the CuZr layers due to the accumulated glide dislocations along CuZr-Cu interfaces, and propagate into adjacent Cu layers via slips on {111} plane non-parallel to the interface. Due to crystallographic constraint of the Cu layers, shear bands are approximately parallel to {111} plane in the Cu layer.

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