Microstructure and Properties of Titanium Matrix Composites Synergistically Reinforced by Graphene Oxide and Alloying Elements

In this work, the microstructure and mechanical properties of titanium matrix composites were tuned by introducing graphene and alloying elements. The titanium matrix composites reinforced by graphene oxide (GO) and cobalt elements (GO@ Co/TA1) are synthesized by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Results show that the precipitated Ti2Co phase is almost reticulate distributed in the tissue, while the in situ TiC particles are discontinuously distributed at the grain boundaries. The ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of GO@ Co/TA1 composites are 160% and 126% higher than those of pure TA1, respectively. In addition, composites show excellent ductility where the elongation of GO@Co/TA1 is around 10.95%. Therefore, such enhanced mechanical properties can be attributed to the synergistic strengthening effect of interfacial-distributed TiC particles and intragranular-distributed intermetallic compounds (Ti2Co), which would provide a new idea for the design of metal matrix composite.