Achieving homogeneous dispersion of GNPs in Ti-based nanocomposites via high-pressure torsion

Abstract How to obtain the uniform dispersion and prohibit severe interfacial reaction simultaneously were the two important problems in graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) reinforced Ti matrix (GNPs/Ti) composites. In this study, GNPs/Ti nanocomposites were fabricated by using high-pressure torsion (HPT) technique at ambient temperature. The microstructure evolution of the GNPs/Ti nanocomposites during HPT processing were investigated. The results show that the GNPs were homogeneously dispersed under the HPT shear force. Moreover, their intrinsic structure was well-retained with no interfacial reaction. The microhardness of HPT 1wt.% GNPs/Ti nanocomposite was increased by 18.6% compared to that HPT pure Ti processed at 5GPa-5r.