Electroless-plating of Ag nanoparticles on Al2O3 and graphene Nano sheets (GNs) for improved wettability and properties of Al–Al2O3/GNs nanocomposites

Low wettability between reinforcements and matrix is a key challenge in the production of metal matrix nanocomposites with improved properties. In this paper, we employed electroplating technology to coat Al2O3 and Graphene Nano sheets (GNs) with Ag nanoparticles to improve their wettability with Al matrix. After coating, we used mechanical milling and sintering to manufacture Al–10%Al2O3/GNs hybrid nanocomposites with different GNs content. For all the manufactured composites, we evaluated the structural, mechanical and wear behaviors. The results revealed the efficiency of electroplating process for improving wettability between composite components resulting in very dense samples even for samples with relatively high GNs content. This improved wettability enable the production of hybrid composite with 2 times larger hardness and reduced wear rates due to the improved surface characteristics of Al2O3 and GNs nanoparticles caused by Ag plating over their surfaces. In comparison with available techniques and results in the literature, we achieved hybrid nanocomposite with 1.85 times larger hardness than the available Al-GNs nanocomposite and 1.75 times larger hardness than the available Al–Al2O3/GNs nanocomposites.