A scalable and facile synthesis of alumina/exfoliated graphite composites by attrition milling

Abstract

Nanostructured carbon–ceramic nanocomposites are becoming important and promising structural materials for plasma-resistant applications because of their electro-conductive and mechanically robust (fracture-, wear-, and plasma-resistant) nature. In this work, we present a facile one-pot synthesis of alumina/exfoliated graphite (EG) composite by attrition milling employing small ceramic beads. The resulting composite shows homogeneous dispersion of exfoliated graphitic nanosheets in the ceramic matrix. The sintered composites exhibit excellent electrical conductivity (>1000 S m⁻¹), fracture toughness (5.6 MPa m^0.5), and wear resistance, which is enhanced by 7.7 times compared to pure alumina.