The Possible Detriment of Oxygen in Creep of Alumina and Zirconia Ceramic Composites Reinforced with Graphene.

This paper is aims to give an answer to the following question: is the oxidation of graphene a critical issue for high-temperature plasticity in graphene-reinforced ceramics? To give a convincing reply, we will focus on two very different graphene-based ceramic composites: reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced alumina (α-AlO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO)-reinforced yttria tetragonal zirconia (t-ZrO). The processing of the powders has been made using a colloidal route, and after that, a spark plasma sintering process was performed in order to densify the samples. Creep tests were performed at temperatures between 1200-1250 °C in an argon atmosphere.