Graphene/nickel composite nanowires under uniaxial compression: A molecular dynamics simulation study

Graphene is of great interest because of its excellent mechanical, electrical and thermal properties, which make it possibly to be an ideal reinforcement for nanocomposites. Using molecular dynamics simulations, here we focused on the compressive behaviours of the nanolayered graphene/nickel composite nanowires (NWs) at different temperature, with considering layer spacing effect. A comparative study was conducted on the compressive mechanical properties of single-crystalline nickel NWs and graphene/nickel composite NWs. The simulation results show that the composites NWs exhibit higher peak yield stress. The analysis on deformation shows that graphene can serve as an impermeable interface, blocking the motion of dislocation and leading the dislocations piled up, which increase the ultimate strength of composites NWs without compromising of ductility. The plastic deformation is mainly limited in the single layer of metal, which consistent with the experiment observation. In addition, the smaller the layer spacing of nanolayered composites is, the higher the ultimate yield strength of the composites NWs could be. The present results are expected to contribute to the design of the metal nanocomposites enhanced by graphene.