Influence of graphene nanoplates and titanium diboride particulate on wear and interfacial bonding properties of sintered aluminium alloy composites

Abstract

Graphene has been considered an appropriate reinforcing filler for aluminium/titanium metal matrix composites due to its outstanding strength and stiffness and its exceptional thermal and electrical properties. The variable concentrations of graphene nanoplates (GNPs) was considered in this research, such as 2 %, 4 %, 6 % and 8 %, for determining wear properties and interface bonding aluminium alloy composites. The graphene-reinforced Al 7075/10 % TiB2 hybrid nanocomposite samples were produced using ball milling and pressure-less vacuum sintering process. The wear loss was investigated for all the variable graphene concentration samples with respect to wear load and sliding distance by pin-on-disk method and optimum concentatrion of GNPs was obtained by design of experimental (DOE) analysis. Further, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Elemental mapping, Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX), and microhardness tests were utilized to analyze the graphene-reinforced Al 7075/10 % TiB2 hybrid nanocomposites, It was concluded that the wear resistance and microhardness of Al/10 % TiB2/4 % GNPs increased by 71.3 % and 17.6 %, respectively, compared with non-hybrid aluminium alloy materials. Moreover, a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) has been used to investigate the interfacial strength of aluminium alloy composites. The wear loss characteristics was also optimized using and central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM).