Graphene (GR) demonstrates significant potential in enhancing the mechanical performance of titanium matrix composites (TMCs), particularly by improving their tensile strength, fracture toughness, and fatigue resistance, thereby optimizing the overall structural integrity and durability of the composites; however, their practical implementation confronts two fundamental challenges: achieving uniform dispersion and mitigating excessive interfacial TiC formation, which compromises mechanical properties. This review comprehensively explores progress in the fabrication, interfacial design, and mechanical optimization of TMCs reinforced with graphene-based materials. Various processing techniques, such as powder metallurgy (PM) and spark plasma sintering (SPS), are critically analyzed in terms of their advantages and limitations for producing high-performance TMCs. This article analyzes how key parameters in processes like PM and SPS affect graphene structure, dispersion, and interfacial reactions. It outlines strategies—including surface modification, 3D structural design, and multiscale interface engineering—that enhance both strength and toughness. While progress has been made in microscale performance, challenges remain in engineering stability and long-term reliability. Future work should focus on intelligent process optimization and architectured composite manufacturing. By systematically synthesizing existing research findings, this article clarifies the advantages and limitations of current technological approaches, providing a theoretical foundation and technical roadmap for the subsequent development of graphene-reinforced TMCs that exhibit high strength, high toughness, and excellent reliability.

Carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPs) have attracted increasing attention in aerospace, transportation, marine engineering, and other advanced manufacturing fields owing to their high specific mechanical properties, impact resistance, weldability, reprocessibility, and potential recyclability. However, the high melt viscosity of thermoplastic matrices, the permeability limitations associated with different reinforcement architectures, and the chemical inertness of carbon fiber surfaces continue to restrict resin impregnation, interfacial bonding, defect control, and forming stability. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in CFRTP manufacturing from the perspective of material-derived processing challenges and interface engineering. First, representative thermoplastic matrix systems and reinforcement architectures are discussed, with emphasis on their effects on processability, crystallization behavior, resin flow, and load transfer. Subsequently, six major forming processes, including hot stamping, injection molding, pultrusion, filament winding, automated fiber placement, and additive manufacturing, are critically compared in terms of processing principles, typical defects, technical limitations, and application boundaries. Particular attention is given to process-induced quality issues such as voids, wrinkling, springback, fiber breakage, warpage, insufficient consolidation, and weak interlayer bonding. Finally, interface engineering strategies, including chemical surface modification, interfacial structural design, and functional interlayer design, are reviewed as practical routes to improve wetting, shorten impregnation pathways, and enhance fiber–matrix load transfer in high-viscosity thermoplastic systems. This review highlights that CFRTP manufacturing should be understood as a coupled materials–processing–interface problem rather than a single forming operation. Future development is discussed with emphasis on reproducible manufacturing, processability-oriented materials, scalable interface engineering, predictive modeling, and standardized structural validation.

During the initial extrusion stage of the as-sintered GNPs/TA15 composite, dislocations accumulated along the GNPs and grain boundaries, leading to the formation of a subgrain structure. As extrusion progressed, these subgrains underwent rotation and transformed into finer grains through dynamic recrystallization. This process resulted in significant grain refinement, with the average grain size decreasing from 3.04 μm to 1.30 μm. Concurrently, the Ti matrix adjacent to the GNPs initially flowed towards the GNPs and subsequently elongated along the extrusion direction (ED). Furthermore, the deformed α grains experienced slip along the {10$\overline{1}$0}⟨11$\overline{2}$0⟩ system, giving rise to the development of [10$\overline{1}$1]//ED and [20$\overline{2}$1]//ED α textures. This study elucidates the influence of GNPs on the microstructural evolution, particularly in terms of grain refinement and the formation of α textures, as a function of increasing extrusion ratios.