Abstract
Carbon fiber is mainly distributed in the shape of short fibers and continuous fiber bundles as the reinforcing phase in metal matrix composites, and it is seldom studied as braided rope shaped to reinforce the matrix. For this paper, the pretreatment and the surface metallization of the carbon fiber braided rope were studied. Besides, the casting experiments of aluminum-based carbon fiber braided rope composites were performed without external pressure. XPS analysis shows that the surface of the carbon fiber braided rope treated with ultrasonic degumming contains many hydrophilic oxygen-containing functional groups C-OH, C=O, COOH, etc., which can effectively improve the wettability between the carbon fiber braided rope and the aluminum matrix. SEM, EDS, and XRD were used to analyze the micromorphology and structure of the copper plating on the surface of carbon fiber braided ropes obtained from different pH plating solutions. When pH is 12, a continuous, uniform, and dense layer was formed on the surface of carbon fiber braided ropes. In addition, copper coating can effectively inhibit the formation of Al4C3 brittle phase. Finally, the mechanical properties results indicated that the tensile strength of the carbon fiber bundle and carbon fiber rope reinforced composite materials were 69 MPa and 83 MPa, respectively, indicating that the reinforcing effect of the carbon fiber rope is better than that of the carbon fiber bundle.
Highlights
Metal matrix composites developed in the early 1960s
For the past few years, the development of carbon fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites has mainly focused on short fibers, particles, and continuous carbon fiber bundles [7,8,9,10,11]
The addition of short carbon fibers and particles as reinforcements has the advantage of being easy to disperse, which can ensure that the properties of the composite material are uniform in all directions and that it has more excellent maneuverability during the preparation process [12,13,14,15]
Summary
Metal matrix composites developed in the early 1960s They have high specific strength, specific rigidity, good resistance to creep and high temperature [1,2], and show great potential in aerospace and advanced weapons and equipment. The performance of carbon fiber has been greatly improved, and carbon fiber reinforced aluminum composite has been identified as an ideal structural material due to its high specific strength, good thermal stability, and outstanding corrosion resistance [3,4,5,6]. For the past few years, the development of carbon fiber reinforced aluminum matrix composites has mainly focused on short fibers, particles, and continuous carbon fiber bundles [7,8,9,10,11]. Due to the small fiber size, it is inevitable to introduce a large number of fiber fracture interface between the matrix in the composites, which increases the material’s sensitivity to deformation, reduces the reinforcement efficiency of carbon fibers, causes stress concentration due to segregation and sharpening, and, Metals 2020, 10, 1212; doi:10.3390/met10091212 www.mdpi.com/journal/metals
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