Mechanical and thermal properties of Graphene nanoplates (GNPs)/Lithium aluminosilicate (LAS) composites: An analysis based on mathematical model and experiments
Introduction
Currently, with the rapid development of information technology, lithium aluminosilicate (LAS) glass-ceramic has attracted a lot of attention in the past few years due to their superior wave-transparent properties [[1], [2], [3], [4]]. Besides, LAS glass-ceramic also has good thermal properties, such as ultra-low coefficient of thermal expansion, and great thermal shock resistance [[5], [6], [7]], demonstrating attractive application in aerospace and communications. However, their wide application as structure materials was hindered by the low toughness and strength like most ceramics. Thus, the fibers [5,[7], [8], [9], [10]], nanotubes [[11], [12], [13], [14]], and whiskers [13] are often used as an enhanced phase to improve the mechanical properties of ceramic.
Graphene has attracted wide attention since its discovery owing to the excellent properties that include high fracture strength, high Young's modulus, high thermal conductivity, excellent charge-carrier mobility, and so on [[15], [16], [17], [18]]. Graphene has two-dimensional structure and produces almost no stress concentration due to its smaller size compared with fibers and whiskers. However, single-layered graphene is hard to obtain [[19], [20], [21]]. Graphene nanoplates (GNPs) are consisted of several layers of graphene and have similar properties to single-layer graphene. Besides, GNPs are much easier to produce. Thus, GNPs are ideal substitute of graphene and GNPs reinforced ceramic composites were paid wide attention by researchers [22,23].
In last few years, GNPs/ceramic composites have been focused by researchers, such as GNPs/Si3N4 [[24], [25], [26], [27]], GNPs/Al2O3 [[28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37]], GNPs/ZrO2 [38], and so on [32,[39], [40], [41], [42]]. The fracture toughness of the composites can be improved through crack branching, deflection and bridging with the addition of GNPs [43]. The thermal conductivity is mainly controlled by the anisotropy of GNPs which have low through-plane thermal conductivity and high in-plane thermal conductivity [44].
In this study, GNPs were induced to improve the mechanical properties of LAS glass ceramic for the first time, and the GNPs/LAS composites were produced by hot-pressing sintering in vacuum condition. The phases in the composite are identified by XRD pattern and FTIR spectral. The flexural strength, fracture toughness and thermal conductivity of the composites with different GNPs contents were measured. By using mathematical models, the effect of GNPs content on the mechanical and thermal properties have been investigated in detail.
Section snippets
Experimental
LAS precursor powder and GNPs are used as the raw materials. The GNPs are dispersed in alcohol firstly as shown in Fig. 1. Then LAS powder is added to these slurries with GNPs ratios of 1ā4Ā wt% (named G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4) and 5Ā wt% methylcellulose (based on LAS precursor powders) is used as the dispersant. Next, the mixture is ball-milled in alcohol at 550Ā rpm for 3Ā h and dried for 24Ā h. The dried mixture powder is sieved using an 80 mesh. Finally, the GNPs/LAS are obtained by using vacuum
Characterization and microstructure
Fig. 2a shows the XRD patterns of the GNPs/LAS ceramic composites. The spectra of different specimens are similar [45,46]. The peaks of the sintered GNPs/LAS are well matched to LiAlSi3O8 (PDF#35ā0794). Fig. 2b shows the FTIR spectra of the composites. The peak at ~990Ā cmā1 corresponds to the telescopic asymmetric vibration of SiāO band; the peak at ~740Ā cmā1 relates to the symmetric vibration of SiāOāAl band. Besides, the peaks of GNPs are not detected by XRD and FTIR due to its small quantity.
Conclusions
The GNPs reinforced LAS glass-ceramic composites were fabricated by means of hot-press sintering method at 1200Ā Ā°C for 0.5Ā h. The main phase in the products is LiAlSi3O8 identified by XRD pattern and FTIR spectra. The dispersion of GNPs decreases with the addition of GNPs content (2ā4Ā wt%) by analyzing the IG/IGā of Raman spectra combined with the microstructure of specimens. The flexural strength and thermal conductivity increase first and then decrease with the increase of GNPs content.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51621091, 51872058, 51772060 and 51972078), Key Laboratory of Advanced Structural-Functional Integration Materials & Green Manufacturing Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China.
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