凯发

Nanocarbons, such as 0-D Carbon Nano Onion (CNO), 1-D Carbon Nanotube (CNT), 2-D Graphene Nanosheets (GNS) are regarded as the ideal reinforcements for high performance metal matrix composites (MMCs). However, the nano carbon reinforced nanocomposites prepared by conventional methods usually showed a tradeoff between promising strength and desirable ductility, due to the lack of effective fabrication method and architecture design, which is a fatal drawback to their practical applications.

Herein, a new strategy of bio-inspired design and fabrication was explored to uniformly distribute nanocarbon in metal matrix composite and coordinate the strength-ductility dilemma. In this report, CNT/Al and GNS/Al composites with reinforcements aligned along the extrusion direction between Al lamellae was fabricated by an approach of flake powder metallurgy, which resorts to make the nanocarbons and metal matrix more compatible both in the surface properties and geometries. Then the nano reinforcement-coated Al nanoflakes were used as building blocks for stack assembly, and then a nacre-like nanolaminate structure could be eventually formed by controlled deformation processing. Compared to the composites of the same reinforcement content but random distribution, the bio-inspired nanolaminate composites exhibited a simultaneous enhancement in tensile strength, Young’s modulus and uniform elongation.