In Situ Growth of Ceria–Zirconia Hybrid Nanowires on Aluminum Foam to Enhance Its Interfacial Bonding Strength with a 30 wt % CF/PPS Composite

Abstract To address the requirements of high-strength and lightweight performance in an aluminum alloy foam board, this study proposes a multiscale interfacial strengthening strategy combining the porous architecture of aluminum foam with in situ grown ceria–zirconia hybrid nanowires to improve the tensile shear strength of 30 wt % carbon fiber-reinforced polyphenylene sulfide–aluminum foam (30 wt % CF/PPS–aluminum foam) joints fabricated through injection molding. Metal oxide nanowires were in situ grown on the aluminum foam surfaces through a hydrothermal reaction followed by high-temperature calcination. The characterization and simulations analysis testify that the metal oxide nanowires grown on the aluminum foam surfaces and within the pores provide abundant chemically active sites and facilitate the infiltration of the PPS melt. The combined effects of the microscale pore structure and the nanowires create a multiscale mechanically interlocked interface. The active sites enable coordination interactions on the metal side and meanwhile provide local chemisorption and hydrogen-bonding interactions on the polymer side. Benefiting from the synergistic strengthening of multiscale mechanical interlocking and chemical bonding, the joints achieve a maximum tensile shear strength of 36.2 MPa.