Interfacial design and strengthening mechanisms of AZ91 alloy reinforced with in-situ reduced graphene oxide

Abstract This work highlights to develop an in-situ process to disperse uniformly graphene possessing good interfacial bonds with the matrix of Mg alloy. A homogeneous distribution of graphene in the matrix has been successfully obtained through in-situ reduction of graphene oxide (RGO) by sintering process after the graphene oxide (GO) was uniformly dispersed in AZ91 powders. The interface product nano-sized MgO can significantly improve the interfacial bonding strength between RGO and α-Mg with analysis by transmission electron microscopy. The orientation relationships of 2 ¯ 00 MgO / / 1 ¯ 10 2 ¯ α ‐ Mg and 011 MgO / / 2 4 ¯ 2 3 ¯ α ‐ Mg with the semi-coherent interface characteristics were clarified for the first time at the interface of MgO/α-Mg, suggesting a good lattice space matching. By employing such process, a composite containing 0.5 wt% of GO shows an 85.7% and 61.4% increase in yield strength and elongation, respectively, over unreinforced AZ91 alloy. The underlying strengthening mechanisms of in-situ reduced graphene oxide are discussed in detail.