Synthesis, characterization of graphene oxide wrapped silicon carbide for excellent mechanical and damping performance for aerospace application

Abstract

Graphene oxide (GO) and silicon carbide (SiC) are the most promising raw materials with their unique mechanical and structural excellent performance qualities. Herein, we synthesized graphene oxide sheets via modified Hummers method. The surface morphology of silicon carbide particles was tailored with wrapping of synthesized graphene oxide sheets through a facile route. The assembled film structure of GO on SiC particles are investigated Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-Ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. In addition, the formation of well-ordered micro structure was investigated through elemental mapping and X-ray energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDX) analysis. Furthermore, using GO wrapped SiC as reinforcement, we fabricate aluminium metal matrix composite via friction stir processing. Additionally, grain refinement of fabricated composites analyzed by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. The damping behaviour of the fabricated composite (SiC/GO/Al) were analyzed in wide range of temperature starting from −100 °C to 400 °C. In this research, storage modulus (SM) and ultimate tensile strength (UTS) measurements revealed that SM and UTS of SiC/GO/Al composite are improved approximately by a factor of ∼ 2.1 and ∼ 3.4, respectively as compare to pure aluminium and graphene oxide nanosheets can serve as excellent material for assembly of SiC particles.