Spark Plasma Sintering of Graphene Nanoplatelets Reinforced Aluminium 6061 Alloy Composites

Abstract

Over the years, high performance lightweight aluminium matrix composites have, mainly due to their excellent mechanical properties, found wide applications in automobile and aerospace applications. In the present study, Graphene NanoPlatelets based reinforced aluminium alloy AA6061 composites have been prepared through spark plasma sintering with four different loadings, i.e. 0.1, 0.5, 1 and 3 wt%. Through property characterisation of the obtained composites, it was established that a higher content of nano reinforcement had a substantial effect on the resulting microstructure, as well as on the electrical conductivity that proved to increase due to uniform distribution of the graphene network around the grains. An increase in the hardness and compressive strength was also obtained. The associated strengthening mechanism is discussed. A 2-dimensional physical model based on the bridging effect of graphene nanoplatelets in a composite matrix is presented, and its correlation with experimental results is discussed.