Application of Graphene Surface Coating for Enhancement of Surface Strength, Wear and Corrosion Resistance

Abstract

Graphene is a carbon-based 2D material that arose huge research interest over the past decade. 2D structure graphene sheet was first exfoliated from graphite by researchers from the University of Manchester, who were awarded the 2010 Nobel Physics Price. The theoretical value of graphene's mechanical properties is outstanding. Nevertheless, limited by the difficulties of fabricating high-quality graphene, the properties of graphene in applications are usually difficult to match its theoretical value. Moreover, the price of high-quality flawless graphene material is high. Currently, graphene's application, especially its mechanical properties, is not mature. This thesis investigates the potential application of graphene in material enhancement by synthesizing a graphene layer on the surface of traditional materials. The graphene layer is produced through laser reduction of easy-to-obtain graphene oxide (GO), which is sprayed onto the base substrate through the electrostatic-spraying (ESP) method with the assistance of high voltage. The synthesized laser-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) layer is of high quality. Compared with traditional graphene fabrication approaches like the chemical vapour deposition method, the laser reduction approach is more flexible and faster. Various tests, including tensile test, corrosion test, and wear test, were performed to examine the properties of the graphene-coated sample. Moreover, the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation package LAMMPS (Large-scale atomic/molecular massively parallel simulator) was used to simulate the properties of graphene-coated material, and the finite element analysis (FEA) package COMSOL was used to simulate the electro-spraying process. The result obtained from this research shows that graphene surface coating can enhance the strength and the wear resistance of traditional materials; the enhancement effect is specifically significant on titanium-based substrates. With further development and optimization, a faster and more flexible method to produce graphene-reinforced materials can go into real-life practice and has great potential in the aerospace field. Based on the results of this research, multiple high-quality journal articles and a book chapter were published or submitted.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Sunday Oyadiji (Supervisor) & Zyad Haji (Supervisor)