Scalable preparation of graphene reinforced Zirconium diboride composites with strong dynamic response

Abstract

An imperative bottleneck of ceramic materials with weak dynamic response, associating with rigid covalent or ionic bonds, has restricted its extensively applications. Despite traditional reinforcements of carbon fibers or whiskers improved their dynamic response, it was still limited to a threshold owing to their heterogeneous dispersion and structural damage. Graphene has been regarded as an alternative reinforcement due to its excellent in-plane mechanical property. Here we developed a scalable process of chemical assembly to fabricate ZrB2-SiC/graphene composites. Graphene offered a shielding effect to arrest crack propagation, and ultimately restrained fracture and fragmentation of composites. Compared with pristine ZrB2-SiC composites, the dynamic strain of ZrB2-SiC/graphene composites (5.2 vol %) depicted a 138% increasing (from 0.095 to 0.226%), and their dynamic stress exhibited a 28% increasing (from 1.50 to 1.92 GPa). This work offers a paradigm for preparing graphene reinforced ceramic composites with strong dynamic response.