Graphene-aluminum (Gr/Al) composite laminated by aluminum (Al) and graphene sheets alternately has excellent mechanical properties thanks to the high strength, high Young’s modulus and the two-dimensional atomic structure of graphene. In this study, the uniaxial tensile properties of Gr/Al nano-laminated composite are studied by molecular dynamics (MD) method. It is found that the thickness of Al layer has a significant effect on the tensile strength and Yang’s modulus of the Gr/Al composite. Composite with a smaller thickness of Al layer shows better properties. Graphene not only block propagation of dislocations, but bear most of the loads, resulting in higher Young's modulus, tensile strength and failure strain of the composites than those of pure Al. The simulation of temperature-effect shows that the Gr/Al composite is difficult to arise plastic deformation at low temperature, which lead to a higher strength and modulus of the composite. In addition, the effect of graphene stacking on the properties of composites is investigated. Through tensile tests at the vertical and parallel interfaces, it is found that graphene stacking may lead to a reduced performance of the composite.

To investigate the effects of film thickness on Raman characterization and intrinsic stress of tetrahedral amorphous carbon and ascertain the correlations between stress and Raman spectra, the ta-C films with different film thickness were deposited on the polished P-type (100) c-silicon substrate with the same conditions by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc technology. The film thickness was measured by the surface profiler and the atomic force microscope; stress was calculated according to the curvature of the stress samples examined by the surface profiler; the microstructure of the films was characterized by the Ramanscope. It has been shown that the stress drops down continuously and the dropping rate turns mild with the increase of film thickness. When the film thickness surpasses 30 nm, the compressive stress is kept at less than 5 GPa. The intensity of the first and second order peak of the c-Si substrate in the visible Raman spectra gradually depresses with the increase of thickness. However, the FWHM is minimal and the maximal intensity is highest from 50 nm to 80 nm, accordingly the clearest Raman signals can be acquired in this scale. Additionally, the position of the asymmetric broad peak gradually shifts towards the lower wavenumber with the increase of thickness and the decease of intrinsic stress.