Facile fabrication of layer-structured graphene/copper composite with enhanced electrical and mechanical properties

Abstract

Copper (Cu) and its related composites are widely used and hence extremely important in industrial applications. Much efforts haves been made to improve the physical properties of Cu, but usually lead to degradation of electrical performance. Herein, this work develops a facile way to fabricate layer-structured graphene/copper composite using graphene powder sprayed on Cu foil as building blocks. Compared to pure Cu bulk, significant improvement of both the electrical conductivity of 105.12% IACS and also ~17% enhanced tensile strength is achieved. This strategy provides a versatile way to produce high-performance Cu composite in large quantity with low cost for practical applications.