Fabrication of in-situ grown graphene reinforced Cu matrix composites

Graphene/Cu composites were fabricated through a graphene in-situ grown approach, which involved ball-milling of Cu powders with PMMA as solid carbon source, in-situ growth of graphene on flaky Cu powders and vacuum hot-press sintering. SEM and TEM characterization results indicated that graphene in-situ grown on Cu powders guaranteed a homogeneous dispersion and a good combination between graphene and Cu matrix, as well as the intact structure of graphene, which was beneficial to its strengthening effect. The yield strength of 244 MPa and tensile strength of 274 MPa were achieved in the composite with 0.95 wt.% graphene, which were separately 177% and 27.4% enhancement over pure Cu. Strengthening effect of in-situ grown graphene in the matrix was contributed to load transfer and dislocation strengthening.