Toughening Effect of Graphene Oxide in WC-Co Cemented Carbide

Abstract

Abstract To study the effect of graphene oxide (GO) addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of WC-Co cemented carbides, sintered bulks were fabricated and characterized. The study shows that the GO added in cemented carbide have insignificant effect on the relative density and the crystalline size, therefore, the higher hardness is maintained. Moreover, the fracture toughness has increased by 29.1%. Bridging is found to be the main toughening mechanism in WC-Co-GO cemented carbide. GO can be expected to be used to prepare cemented carbide with both high hardness and high fracture toughness.