Effect of Increasing the Strength of Aluminum Matrix Nanocomposites Reinforced with Microadditions of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Coated with TiC Nanoparticles.

Artemiy Aborkin,Kirill Khorkov,Michail Alymov,Anatoly Ob’Edkov,Igor Perezhogin,Evgeny Prusov,Kirill Kremlev

doi:10.3390/nano9111596

Abstract

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) are promising materials for applications in various high-tech industries. Control over the processes of interfacial interaction in Al/MWCNT composites is important to achieve a high level of mechanical properties. The present study describes the effects of coating MWCNTs with titanium carbide nanoparticles on the formation of mechanical properties and the evolution of the reinforcement structure in bulk aluminum matrix nanocomposites with low concentrations of MWCNTs under conditions of solid-phase consolidation of ball-milled powder mixtures. Using high-energy ball milling and uniaxial hot pressing, two types of bulk nanocomposites based on aluminum alloy AA5049 that were reinforced with microadditions of MWCNTs and MWCNTs coated with TiC nanoparticles were successfully produced. The microstructural and mechanical properties of the Al/MWCNT composites were investigated. The results showed that, on the one hand, the TiC nanoparticles on the surface of the MWCNT hybrid reinforcement reduced the damage of reinforcement under the intense exposure of milling bodies, and on the other hand, they reduced the contact area of the MWCNTs with the matrix material (acting as a barrier interface), which also locally inhibited the reaction between the matrix and the MWCNTs.

Highlights

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have significant potential for applications in automotive, aerospace, and other high-tech industries: this is driven by the possibility of achieving high physical and mechanical properties of products even at a low content of the reinforcing phase due to the extended specific surface of the reinforcement and the effects associated with nanostructuring [1,2,3]
Two types of carbon nanostructures were used for comparison: multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes coated with titanium carbide nanoparticles (TiC/MWCNTs)
The initial MWCNTs were synthesized through the metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method with ferrocene and toluene used as precursors under an argon flow in a tubular reactor equipped with a tubular furnace at 825 ◦C, as described in detail elsewhere [28]

Summary

Introduction

Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have significant potential for applications in automotive, aerospace, and other high-tech industries: this is driven by the possibility of achieving high physical and mechanical properties of products even at a low content of the reinforcing phase due to the extended specific surface of the reinforcement and the effects associated with nanostructuring [1,2,3]. One of the main problems that accompanies the preparation of aluminum matrix composites with carbon nanotubes and limits their practical application is the difficulty of achieving strong interfacial bonding between nanotubes and an aluminum matrix. This is associated with poor wettability of the surface of solid carbon by metal melts in liquid-phase technologies [10] as well as with the presence of a natural oxide layer on the surface of aluminum particles that impedes direct contact with nanotubes in solid-phase technologies of Al/CNT composite manufacturing [11]. The control of interfacial reactions (allowing for a certain interfacial interaction, but only to a limited extent) will improve interfacial bonding and correspondingly increase effective strength, as shown in Reference [13]

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