Unveiling the Role of Graphene in Enhancing the Mechanical Properties of Electrodeposited Ni Composites

Graphene holds significant promise as an ideal reinforcing phase. However, its tendency to irreversibly aggregate and its unclear impact on electrodeposition mechanisms have hindered the full exploitation of its advantages for enhancing material mechanical properties. In this study, we produced a graphene/Ni composite reinforced with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) via a simple, scalable, and cost-effective electrodeposition approach. The incorporation of graphene not only raised the cathodic polarization potential but also enhanced the transport of ions. As a result, the presence of rGO significantly influenced the grain size, grain distribution, and the proportion of growth twins-3(111). Compared with Ni, the graphene/Ni composite exhibited improvements of 14.8% in strength and 16.8% in fracture elongation. Additionally, first-principles calculations confirmed that superior electronic conductivity and all elastic moduli along with Poisson’s ratio were found to be higher in the composite. Our findings offer fundamental insights into the role of rGO in governing the structural evolution of graphene/metal composites.