Effects of disc milling and indirect extrusion processing on mechanical properties of aluminum-graphene-composites with commercial GNPs

Effects of disc milling and indirect extrusion processing on mechanical properties of aluminum-graphene-composites with commercial GNPs

NEGENDANK Maik, GANCHULUUN Enkhtaivan, JAIN Nishant, MÜLLER Sören

Abstract. In this study aluminum-graphene-composites were manufactured applying a powder metallurgical approach. After graphene exfoliation and mechanical mixing, powders were disc milled, compacted and extruded into round rods. Two different sources of commercial graphene nano platelets (GNP) (by 1. Sigma Aldrich (SA) and 2. Alfa Aesar (AA)) were investigated with the main difference being their specific surface area. One subject of the study was to investigate the effect of disc milling processing on the mechanical properties of Al/GNP composites. Results indicated that micro hardness as well tensile yield strength (TYS) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) were not improved significantly or only slightly when SA-GNPs and a disc milling duration of 1min were applied. Varying the extrusion ratio from R=9:1 to R=14:1 and R=31:1 as well as applying conic or flat face dies for extrusion did not have a significant effect on the mechanical properties. But when disc milling duration is extended to 5min, significantly increased micro hardness (up to 30%), TYS (up to 17%) and UTS (up to 26%) were observed. Application of AA-GNPs as a second source of commercial GNPs also resulted in significantly increased micro hardness (up to 49%), increased TYS (up to 16%) and UTS (up to 27%) when disc milling of 5min is conducted in the powder processing stage. SEM analysis indicated that after 5min disc milling aluminum particles were deformed from spherical into a plate-like shape. Additionally, GNP exfoliation and its dispersion in the Al matrix seemed to be improved by the longer milling duration and could be a reason for the enhanced strengthening effect of GNPs.

Keywords
Aluminum, Graphene, Composites, Al/GNP Composites, Disc Milling, Extrusion, Mechanical Properties

Published online 4/19/2023, 12 pages
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: NEGENDANK Maik, GANCHULUUN Enkhtaivan, JAIN Nishant, MÜLLER Sören, Effects of disc milling and indirect extrusion processing on mechanical properties of aluminum-graphene-composites with commercial GNPs, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 28, pp 455-466, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902479-50

The article was published as article 50 of the book Material Forming

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

References
[1] K.S. Novoselov, A.K. Geim, S.V. Morozov, D. Jiang, Y. Zhang, S.V. Dubonos, I.V. Grigorieva, A.A. Firsov, Electric field effect in atomically thin carbon films, Science 306 (2004) 666–669. /https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1102896
[2] C. Lee, X. Wei, J.W. Kysar, J. Hone, Measurement of the Elastic Properties and Intrinsic Strength of Monolayer Graphene, Science 321 (2008) 385–388. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1157996
[3] F. Chen, N. Gupta, R.K. Behera, P.K. Rohatgi, Graphene-Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites: A Review of Synthesis Methods and Properties, The Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) 70 (2018) 837-845. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-018-2810-7
[4] S.F. Bartolucci, J. Paras, M.A. Rafiee, J. Rafiee, S. Lee, D. Kapoor, N. Koratkar, Graphene-aluminum nanocomposites, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 528 (2011) 7933-7937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2011.07.043
[5] M. Negendank, H.R. Faezi, O. Ovsianytskyi, O. Goerke, A. Gurlo, S. Mueller, Extrusion and characterization of aluminum/graphene composites, 24th International Conference on Material Forming (online), 2021. https://doi.org/10.25518/esaform21.3714
[6] F. Rikhtegar, S.G. Shabestari, H. Saghafian, The homogenizing of carbon nanotube dispersion in aluminium matrix nanocomposite using flake powder metallurgy and ball milling methods, Powder Technol. 280 (2015) 26-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2015.04.047
[7] J.B. Wu, M.L. Lin, X. Cong, H.N. Liu, P.H. Tan, Raman spectroscopy of graphene-based materials and its applications in related devices, Chem. Soc. Rev. 47 (2018) 1822-1873. https://doi.org/10.1039/c6cs00915h
[8] B. Sahoo, J. Paul, Solid state processed Al-1100 alloy/MWCNT surface nanocomposites, Materialia 2 (2018) 196-207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtla.2018.08.003
[9] B. Sahoo, S.D. Girhe, J. Paul, Influence of process parameters and temperature on the solid state fabrication of multilayered graphene-aluminium surface nanocomposites, J. Manuf. Process. 34 (2018) 486-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2018.06.042
[10] A. Sharma, V.M. Sharma, J. Paul, Fabrication of bulk aluminum-graphene nanocomposite through friction stir alloying. J. Compos. Mater. 54 (2020) 45-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021998319859427
[11] B. Sahoo, R. Kumar, J. Joseph, A. Sharma, J. Paul, Preparation of aluminium 6063-graphite surface composites by an electrical resistance heat assisted pressing technique, Surf. Coat. Technol. 309 (2017) 563-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2016.12.011