Folded graphene reinforced nanocomposites with superior strength and toughness:A molecular dynamics study

Toughness and strength are important material parameters in practical structural applications.However,it remains a great challenge to achieve high toughness and high strength simultaneously for most materials.Here,we report a folded graphene(FG)reinforced copper(Cu)nanocomposite that overcomes the long-standing conflicts between toughness and strength.Intensive molecular dynamics simulations show that the 10%pre-strain-induced four-wave-patterned FG(1.09 wt%)reinforced Cu nanocomposite exhibits simultaneous enhancement in toughness(~13.59 J/m^(2)),ductility(~32.38%),and strength(~9.52 GPa),corresponding to 38.53%,58.88%,and 2.26%increase,respectively when compared with its counterpart reinforced by pristine graphene(PG).More importantly,the mechanical properties of FG/Cu nanocomposites can be effectively tuned by changing the pre-compressive strain,wave number,and peak number of FG.The toughening and strengthening mechanisms are applicable to other metal materials reinforced by other 2 D nanomaterials,opening up a new avenue for developing tough and strong metal nanocomposites.