Titanium dioxide protection against Al4C3 formation during fabrication of aluminum-TiO2 coated MWCNT composite

Abstract

Aluminum and aluminum alloys have been very useful in the industry, mainly in the transport sector. So, is important to improve their mechanical properties to increase their applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could be an excellent reinforcing phase for metal matrix composites, specifically for composites with aluminum or aluminum alloy matrix. However, CNTs dispersion, wettability, and interaction with the matrix must be improved, without damaging their structure. In this work, multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs) were coated by the sol-gel process with a titanium oxide (TiO2) layer with three different thickness and calcined at two different temperatures: 500 °C and 750 °C. The resultant powder was mixed by electrostatic adsorption method with aluminum powder and cold compacted. To simulate high temperature processing, the compacted disks were pressureless heated at 850 °C, aiming to check the effect of TiO2 in protecting the MWCNT when in contact with melted Al. The TiO2 coated MWCNT samples were characterized by a range of analytical techniques including Field-Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEG-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Z-Potential, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) and Raman Spectroscopy (RS). The effect of the TiO2 layer as a protective barrier on the MWCNT against the Al4C3 formation during the heating process and the hardness of the Al/MWCNT (coated and uncoated) composite were studied. The results show that the MWCNT were successful coverage by a uniform amorphous TiO2 layer. After calcination at 500 °C and 750 °C, the layer was completely crystallized into a TiO2 film, with reduced surface area and pore volume. Electrostatic adsorption between TiO2 covered MWCNT and Al powders in aqueous suspension was found to disperse the reinforcing phase prior to consolidation. On the heat-treated discs, the formation of Al4C3 phase was observed to occur only for uncoated MWCNT samples, showing that the TiO2 layer effectively protected the nanotubes in presence of melted Al. The microhardness of the heated samples was increased up to 26% when reinforced with MWCNT and up to 46% when reinforced with TiO2 coated MWCNT, compared with pure aluminum.