Abstract

A powder-in-sheath rolling method was applied to a fabrication of a carbon nano tube (CNT) reinforced aluminum composite. A STS304 tube with an outer diameter of 34 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm was used as a sheath material. A mixture of pure aluminum powders and CNTs with the volume contents of 1, 3, 5 vol was filled in the tube by tap filling and then processed to 73.5% height reduction by a rolling mill. The relative density of the CNT/Al composite fabricated by the powder-in-sheath rolling decreased slightly with increasing of CNTs content, but exhibited high value more than 98. The grain size of the aluminum matrix was largely decreased with addition of CNTs; it decreased from <TEX>$24{\mu}m$</TEX> to <TEX>$0.9{\mu}m$</TEX> by the addition of only 1 volCNT. The average hardness of the composites increased by approximately 3 times with the addition of CNTs, comparing to that of unreinforced pure aluminum. It is concluded that the powder-in-sheath rolling method is an effective process for fabrication of CNT reinforced Al matrix composites.

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