Reduced graphene oxide dispersed in copper matrix composites: Facile preparation and enhanced mechanical properties

This work demonstrated a facile method to highly improve the mechanical properties of the reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/Cu composites. The RGO/Cu hybrid powders were successfully synthesized through a one-step thermal reaction of glycine, copper nitrate, and GO mixture. After sintered by spark plasma sintering, the resulting RGO/Cu composite exhibited the RGO sheets uniformly distributed and well bonded with Cu matrix coupled with the restoration of graphene defects. Specially, X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) analysis revealed the formation of covalent COCu bond between RGO and Cu in RGO/Cu powders, and this oxygen-coordinated bond still retained in the sintered RGO/Cu composite. Tensile measurements indicated that the RGO/Cu composite with 0.6 wt.% RGO showed a 75.8% enhancement in yield strength while simultaneously maintained a 29% of elongation. These findings will be helpful for the design and development of the RGO/Cu composites with enhanced mechanical properties.