Elastic strain induced abnormal grain growth in graphene nanosheets (GNSs) reinforced copper (Cu) matrix composites

Orientation related grain growth stimuli during primary and secondary recrystallization of the metal matrix in laminated metal/non-metal composites demonstrate unique effect on orientation evolution but has rarely been investigated. In this work, the recrystallization and grain growth of Cu in a graphene nanosheets (GNSs) reinforced laminated Cu matrix composite during sintering was thoroughly investigated. The microstructure, texture and lattice strain evolution of the Cu/GNS composite was examined referenced to the Cu stack without GNSs by ex-situ and in-situ orientation characterization techniques (SEM-EBSD, neutron diffraction and synchrotron radiation) from mesoscale to macroscopic scale. The results evidenced that a strong Cube orientation was produced in the Cu/GNS composite instead of the individual non-Cube orientations in the pure Cu stack without GNSs. Detailed strain-state analysis of the Cu foils in the Cu/GNS composite revealed that the anisotropic expansion behavior of the GNS that is incompatible with that of the Cu foils imposed multiple elastic constraints to the foils during the sintering process, resulting in a biaxial isostrain state in the surface layers and a uniaxial compressive strainstate in the central layer of each Cu foil. The elastic anisotropy of Cu favors the growth of the Cube oriented grains to minimize the total strain energy. This work clarified the thermal strain induced abnormal grain growth of selected orientations. The mechanism revealed can be useful for analysing abnormal grain growth in elastically strained materials and can also be applied to fabrication process for texturization or even monocrystallization.