Rui Dai¹ Qiong Nian¹

1, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States

Monolayer Graphene with extraordinary mechanical properties and super large specific surface area arouses extensive scientific interests as the potential reinforcement for fabrication of light-weight, high strength and stiffness metal-matrix composites. Previous experimental studies have demonstrated this reinforcement effect of graphene in a variety of metal matrix composites mainly in the shape of thin film or thick bulk, however, few talked about its reinforcement efficiency in the three-dimensional (3D) structure. Herein, to reveal the reinforcement effect of graphene in the 3D structure, a graphene-nickel composite foam has been fabricated through applying electrochemical co-deposition process. Specifically, a Polyurethane (PU) foam with the stochastic lattice structure is selected as the template, on which the graphene nano-flakes and nickel matrix were co-deposited through adjusting the electrochemical deposition conditions. Afterwards, the PU template was removed by a thermal decomposition process and the light-weight nickel foam in consist of hierarchy open cells and hollow triangle ligaments was obtained. Computational simulations and theoretical modeling were utilized to understand the underling mechanisms and provide a comparison to the experimental results. Our study on the 3D graphene-metal composite foam sheds light on fabricating novel high strength mechanical metamaterial.