Tailoring the structure and mechanical properties of graphene nanosheet/aluminum composites by flake powder metallurgy via shift-speed ball milling

Graphene nanosheet (GNS)/aluminum composites were fabricated via shift-speed ball milling (SSBM), consisting of a long-term low-speed ball milling (LSBM) and a short-term high-speed ball milling (HSBM). During the early stage of LSBM, Al powders were flattened into flakes, while the agglomerated GNSs were gradually dispersed onto Al flakes. After an inflection point of LSBM time, the dispersed GNSs got re-agglomerated and seriously damaged due to the accumulated work-hardening of Al flakes. During HSBM, the GNS/Al flakes were cold-welded into lamellar-structured particles, preserving the GNS dispersion states. It was demonstrated that the 0.5 vol.% GNS/Al composites via SSBM with 6 h LSBM had proper combination of ultrafine-grained Al matrices with well-preserved, uniformly-dispersed GNSs. Exceptional properties were achieved with a good ductility of 13.5% at a tensile strength of 295 MPa. Therefore, such flake powder metallurgy via SSBM proved to be a smart and effective fabrication strategy for nano-reinforced metal matrix composites.