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Research Scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
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Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Copper has good electrical and thermal conductivities and is used in numerous electrical and electronic applications as well as thermal management applications, but not for mechanical applications because of its low mechanical strength. In this research work, fabrication of graphene and graphene ferromolybdenum (Gr–FeMo) reinforced copper surface hybrid composites via Friction Stir Processing (FSP) technique is presented, which has high multifunctional properties. Optimum FSP conditions for surface reinforcement of commercially pure copper plates with graphene and graphene ferromolybdenum (1:1) hybrid mixture, respectively, at various volume fractions of 5, 15, and 25% have been performed. The surface hybrid composites thus fabricated have been characterized by SEM, energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Vickers microhardness, electrical and thermal conductivity. The microstructure analysis indicates that there is no defect formation in the composites due to severe plastic deformation caused by FSP technique. The highest microhardness (62.56 HV) was reached by the copper composite containing 5% of graphene, being 24% greater than the microhardness of untreated copper (50.60 HV), due to grain refinement, Orowan effect, and effective load transferring mechanism. The electrical conductivity of the hybrid composite 5% graphene–ferromolybdenum had the highest value of 1691.34 S/m while untreated copper had the value of 940.24 S/m. Thus, hybrid reinforcing had a positive impact on electron transport properties. Besides, the copper composite having 25% graphene had the highest thermal conductivity value equal to 1204.41 W m−1 K−1 compared to thermal conductivity of untreated copper (549.26 W m−1 K−1) due to good thermal conductivity properties of graphene. From the results received, it could be concluded that reinforcement with graphene and graphene–ferromolybdenum hybrid provides for a balanced reinforcement in terms of strength, electrical and thermal conductivity.
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