Effect of graphene addition on physico-mechanical and tribological properties of Cu-nanocomposites

This paper presents experimental investigation of the mechanical and tribological properties of Cu-GNs nanocomposites. We employed electroless coating process to coat GNs with Ag particles to avoid their reaction with Cu and formation of intermetallic phases. We studied the effect of GNs content on structural, mechanical and tribological properties of the produced nanocomposites. The results showed that the coating process is an efficient technique to avoid reaction between Cu and C and the formation intermetallic phases. The addition of GNs should be done wisely since the mechanical and tribological properties improved with increasing GNs up to a certain threshold values. The optimum GNs proved is 0.5%, at which hardness, wear rate and coefficient of friction are improved by 13%, 81.9% and 49.8%, respectively, compared to Cu- nanocomposite. These improved properties are due to the reduced crystallite size, presence of GNs and homogenous distribution of constituents.