Effect of Ceramic Reinforcement on the Properties of Metal Matrix Nanocomposites

Abstract

Metal Matrix Nanocomposites (MMNC’s) have gained a significant importance as it is being used in wide number of industries. MMNC’s uses ductile metallic matrix in which hard ceramic reinforcement is added. Various properties which are found to improve include density, hardness, wear, deformation and corrosion. Among all the processing techniques, powder metallurgy (P/M) route is known as an effective way to produce MMNC’s due to its low cost, controlled porosity and good material utilization. The present paper reports a systematic study for the development of ceramic (alumina/zirconia) reinforced iron metal matrix composite (MMC) for various applications such as aerospace, automobiles and other industrial applications. Phase formation, phase volume and the interaction of metal and reinforcement play an important role to achieve the desired properties. Therefore, different characterization routes such as X-ray diffraction, density and scanning electron microscopy provides useful information to study the physical behaviour whereas hardness, wear rate, compression test helps to study the mechanical behaviour of prepared MMNC’s. It has been observed that increasing the reinforcement content improves the material’s overall performance when added up to a certain concentration. A very high content of reinforcement results in to the high pore volume and brittleness which results into degradation of mechanical as well as electrochemical behaviour of the formed nanocomposite. It is expected that the present study would be helpful to overcome the earlier drawbacks and will help to develop high quality MMNC’s for industrial applications.