Using Different Powdered Carbon Forms for Reinforcing Aluminum Composite Materials with Carbon and Titanium Carbide: A Review

Abstract

The use of both traditional powdered carbon materials (graphite, soot, charcoal, and shungite) and novel carbon nanomaterials (nanodiamonds, fullerene, nanotubes, and graphene) as a dispersed reinforcing phase in aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) and as reagents for the synthesis of reinforcing particles of titanium carbide (TiC) in AMCs is considered. It is noted that the main direction of AMC development to significantly improve the mechanical properties consists of the transition from micron-sized reinforcing particles to nanoparticles, and that the use of novel carbon nanomaterials could play a decisive role in this case. It is necessary that the technologies for producing such AMCs provide the appropriate parameters of the nanoparticles, their uniform distribution throughout the matrix, and a strong adhesive interfacial bond with the matrix. However, the implementation of these technological requirements is a great problem, since carbon and titanium carbide nanoparticles cannot be wetted by aluminum at a temperature below 1000°C and are prone to the formation of agglomerates from nanoparticles owing to interparticle adhesive forces, the magnitude of which increases to the greatest extent with a decreasing particle size. An overview of the achievements and unresolved issues in the use of powdered carbon forms in different solid-phase and liquid-phase methods for manufacturing AMCs based on various techniques is presented. It is shown that the potentialities of using traditional carbon materials are not still exhausted. Considerable attention is paid to the use of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) for obtaining reinforcing titanium carbide particles with the use of different carbon materials to produce AMCs.