Metals can be strengthened by adding hard reinforcements, but such strategy usually compromises ductility and toughness. Natural nacre consists of hard and soft phases organized in a regular "brick-and-mortar" structure and exhibits a superior combination of mechanical strength and toughness, which is an attractive model for strengthening and toughening artificial composites, but such bioinspired metal matrix composite has yet to be made. Here we prepared nacre-like reduced graphene oxide (RGrO) reinforced Cu matrix composite based on a preform impregnation process, by which two-dimensional RGrO was used as "brick" and inserted into "□-and-mortar" ordered porous Cu preform (the symbol "□" means the absence of "brick"), followed by compacting. This process realized uniform dispersion and alignment of RGrO in Cu matrix simultaneously. The RGrO-and-Cu artificial nacres exhibited simultaneous enhancement on yield strength and ductility as well as increased modulus, attributed to RGrO strengthening, effective crack deflection and a possible combined failure mode of RGrO. The artificial nacres also showed significantly higher strengthening efficiency than other conventional Cu matrix composites, which might be related to the alignment of RGrO.

No abstract

The excellent properties of graphene promote it as an ideal reinforcement in composites. However, dispersing graphene homogenously into metals is a key challenge that limits the development of high-performance graphene-reinforced metal matrix composites. Here, via simple electrostatic interaction between graphene oxide (GO) and Al flakes, uniform distribution of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) in an Al matrix is achieved. The adsorption process of GO on Al flakes is efficient, as it can be completed in minutes and proceeds spontaneously without any chemical agents. GO can be partially reduced by the electron interchange during the adsorption process and could be thoroughly reduced after subsequent thermal annealing. A densified RGO/Al composite can be obtained by hot pressing the RGO/Al composite powders. By employing the preceding fabrication process, a composite reinforced with only 0.3 wt.% of RGO shows an 18 and 17% increase in elastic modulus and hardness, respectively, over unreinforced Al, demonstrating RGO is a better reinforcement than most other reinforcements.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract