Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2014, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (5): 937-943.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-014-0156-x

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effect of Ball Milling on the Defeat of Few-Layer Graphene and Properties of Copper Matrix Composites

Cui Ye1, Wang Lidong1, Li Bin1, Cao Guojian2, Fei Weidong1,3()   

  1. (1) School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China
    (2) School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, 150040, China
    (3) School of Mechanical Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, China
  • Received:2014-05-26 Revised:2014-08-26 Online:2014-10-07 Published:2014-11-13

Abstract:

Graphene-reinforced copper composites recently have attracted more attention, since they exhibited excellent mechanical properties and could be used widely in many fields. Few-layer graphene (FLG) and copper powder were mixed by ball milling to produce homogeneous composite powders. Then, FLG-reinforced copper composites (FLG/Cu) were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) using the composite powders with a FLG volume fraction of 2.4 vol%. The effects of the rotating speed and the time of ball milling were analyzed based on the microstructure evolution and properties of the FLG/Cu composites. Obvious strengthening effect of FLG was found for the composites, and the conductance of the composite reaches 70.4% of IACS. The yield strength of the composite produced by ball milling at a speed of 100 r/min for 4 h is 376 MPa, which is 2.5 times higher than that of copper and higher than that of copper composite enhanced by 5 vol% CNTs (360 MPa). The defects produced in FLG with the increase of rotating speed and time could reduce the mechanical and conductive properties of the composites.

Key words: Copper, Composites, Ball milling, Mechanical properties, Conductivity