Effect of Graphene Electroless Copper Plating on Microstructure and Properties of Spark Plasma Sintering Graphene Reinforced Aluminum Matrix Composites
Copper-plated graphene powder was obtained by electroless plating,and then was mixed with aluminum powder by electrostatic self-assembly.The copper-plated graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composite was prepared by spark plasma sintering.The microstructure and properties of different mass fractions(0.1%,0.2%,0.3%,0.4%,0.5%)of copper-plated graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composites were investigated,and were compared with those of 0.1wt%uncopper-plated graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composite.The results show that the copper-plated graphene was uniformly dispersed in the composites,and the relative density of the composites was more than 99%.Aluminum reacted with copper to form the intermediate phase Al2Cu,but no Al4C3 interfacial phase was formed.The hardness and wear resistance of the copper-plated graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composites were better than those of the uncopper-plated graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composites.With the increase of copper-plated graphene content,the hardness of the composites first increased and then decreased,and the wear mass loss and friction coefficient first decreased and then increased.When the mass fraction of copper-plated graphene was 0.2%,the composite had excellent comprehensive properties with hardness of 74.7 HV,and the smallest wear mass loss and friction coefficient of 0.002 3 g and 0.259,respectively,and the wear mechanism was oxidation wear.