Effectively improving the ductility of graphene-reinforced titanium matrix composites by oscillatory pressure sintering

Enhancing the strength of graphene-reinforced titanium matrix composites while preserving the ductility has garnered considerable attention. In this study, oscillatory pressure sintering (OPS) was applied to fabricate the graphene nanoplatelets reinforced titanium matrix composites with improved strength as well as good ductility. The characterization results show that the oscillatory pressure not only promoted the grain refinement of GNPs/ Ti64 composites, but also increased the proportion of small angle grain boundaries and dislocation density. Thus, the strain hardening ability was effectively improved. The ultimate tensile strength of GNPs/Ti64 composite with +/- 10 MPa oscillatory pressure is 13.0 % higher than that of Ti64, and its elongation reaches 21.5 %, exhibiting remarkable 99.1 % improvement in ductility over the composite without oscillatory pressure. This work provides a promising way to fabricate TMCs with well-balanced strength and ductility.