Revolutionary Coatings: Unlocking the Full Potential of Energy Dissipation and Mechanical Properties in Nickel Foam

Abstract

Applying coatings to metal foam is an effective way to enhance mechanical, damping, and impact properties, etc. In this study, nickel foam coated with graphene, resin, and a combination of both graphene and resin are prepared. The graphene coating improves the damping properties of the nickel foam by 195%, which is more effective than the improvement of 173% achieved by the resin coating. In other words, the graphene coating reduces the vibration decay time of the nickel foam to one-sixth of the original time. Regarding the enhancement of mechanical properties of the nickel foam, the graphene coating also demonstrates a superior performance. Specifically, the graphene coating increases the Young's modulus by approximately 94%, higher than the increase of 82.4% achieved by the resin coating. Interestingly, for both damping and mechanical properties, the combined effect of the two coatings shows a synergistic enhancement effect, where the combined performance is superior to the sum of the individual effects. More importantly, the graphene coating maintains significant enhancement performance at high temperatures, where the resin coating lost its enhancement capability. Additionally, two coatings show the difference enhancement in sound absorption and impact resistance of the nickel foam. A damping model is employed for the coated nickel foam, concretizing the damping enhancement capabilities of different coatings and revealing the high damping properties exhibited by the graphene coating due to interfacial slippage.

Keywords: Nickel foam, Graphene coating, Mechanical properties, Vibration damping, Sound absorption