Fabrication of carbon nanofiber-reinforced aluminum matrix composites assisted by aluminum coating formed on nanofiber surface by in situ chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

The van der Waals agglomeration of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and the weight difference and poor wettability between CNFs and aluminum hinder the fabrication of dense CNF-reinforced aluminum matrix composites with superior properties. In this study, to improve this situation, CNFs were coated with aluminum by a simple and low-cost in situ chemical vapor deposition (in situ CVD). Iodine was used to accelerate the transport of aluminum atoms. The coating layer formed by the in situ CVD was characterized using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results confirmed that the CNFs were successfully coated with aluminum. The composites were fabricated to investigate the effect of the aluminum coating formed on the CNFs. The dispersion of CNFs, density, Vickers micro-hardness and thermal conductivity of the composites fabricated by powder metallurgy were improved. Pressure-less infiltration experiments were conducted to fabricate composites by casting. The results demonstrated that the wettability and infiltration were dramatically improved by the aluminum coating layer on CNFs. The aluminum coating formed by the in situ CVD technique was proved to be effective for the fabrication of CNF-reinforced aluminum matrix composites.