Enhanced strength in reduced graphene oxide/nickel composites prepared by molecular-level mixing for structural applications

An effective molecular-level mixing approach was used to prepare reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/Ni powders, which were directly consolidated into rGO/Ni composites by spark plasma sintering. The rGO/Ni composites were found to exhibit a homogeneous dispersion of rGO and a strong interfacial bonding between the rGO and the Ni matrix. The enhanced interfacial bonding was attributed to the oxygen-mediated bonding generated from the interactions between the residue functional groups of rGO and the Ni atoms. Tensile test revealed that 1.5 wt% rGO/Ni composites demonstrated a 95.2 % increase in tensile strength and a 327.6 % increase in yield strength, while simultaneously retained a 12.1 % of elongation. This study thus proposed an effective way to fabricate rGO/Ni composites with enhanced tensile properties.