Method for reinforcing metal material by means of graphene

Abstract

A method of reinforcing a metallic material includes adding graphene to an alcohol solution; subjecting the alcohol solution containing graphene to sonication; mixing a metal powder with the alcohol solution containing graphene; milling the metal powder and alcohol solution containing graphene mixture; drying the metal powder and alcohol solution containing graphene mixture to form a composite powder; subjecting the composite powder to a densification process followed by a hot isostatic pressing treatment to form a composite material; and molding the composite material by hot extrusion.

Claims

1. A method of reinforcing a metallic material, comprising: adding graphene to an alcohol solution; subjecting the alcohol solution containing graphene to sonication; mixing an aluminum powder with the alcohol solution containing graphene; milling the aluminum powder and alcohol solution containing graphene mixture; drying the aluminum powder and alcohol solution containing graphene mixture to form a composite powder, wherein the composite powder comprises from 0.5 to 2.0 wt. % of the graphene; subjecting the composite powder to a densification process followed by a hot isostatic pressing treatment to form a composite material, wherein the densification process comprises loading the composite powder into a sheath and oscillating to increase an apparent density to a density that is not lower than 1.6 g/cm.sup.3; and molding the composite material by hot extrusion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the alcohol solution containing graphene is sonicated for about 30 minutes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a ratio of mass of aluminum powder added to a volume of the alcohol containing graphene solution is about 10:1 to 0.5:1.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the densification process further comprises: vacuumizing the composite powder in the sheath; and sealing the sheath by welding with the composite powder inside when the pressure reaches 1.010.sup.3 Pa.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hot isostatic pressing treatment is performed at 480 C. and 110 MPa for two hours.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the molding by hot extrusion occurs at a temperature of 440 C. to 480 C.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(1) The following examples will combine the technical aspect of the present invention and describe in detail.

Example 1

(2) The procedure of preparing graphene reinforced metal material are as follows:

(3) (1) 5 g graphene was added to 495 ml of alcohol solution, smash graphene solution prepared using ultrasonic cells for 30 minutes.

(4) (2) 1000 g aluminum powder mix with 500-1000 ml graphene solution in step (1) uniformly and loaded into milling pot, add certain amount of ethyl alcohol to the pot and make the volume of solution to of the pot. The whole solution was milled for over 24 h.
(3) Take out the mixture after milling and load into a beaker and place in the oven to dry to get the composite powder.
(4) Put the powder into pure aluminum sheath with size of 70 mm80 mm and oscillate, the apparent density is not lower than 1.6 g/cm3.
(5) Vacuumize and heat the sheath at 480 C., seal the sheath when the vacuum degree reaches 1.010.sup.3 Pa.
(6) Hot isostatic pressing treatment applied on the sheath to model the composite powder and get the graphene reinforced aluminum alloy composite material, the hot isostatic pressure process was performed at 480 C., 110 Mpa for 2 h.
(7) Remove the sheath after hot isostatic pressure process by linear cutting, lathed bar, etc. Molded the composite by hot extrusion to form graphene reinforced metal bar of 12 mm at 440 C.480 C.

(5) Compared with the existing methods, this invention solves the problem of difficult combination between graphene and metallic matrix. In this process, the amount of graphene can be controlled more precisely and the extrusion process makes graphene further disperse in the matrix and form oriented texture, the intensity of the alloy enhanced significantly. The process is simple and easy to implement mass larger graphene reinforced material preparation.

(6) Although only a few example embodiments have been described in detail above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the example embodiments without materially departing from this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this disclosure as defined in the following claims.