Fabrication of Aluminium-Carbon nanotube Composites Via Spark Plasma Sintering Method

In this study, an attempt was performed on the fabrication of Aluminum-Carbon nanotube composites (Al-CNTs) by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. Aluminum matrix composites reinforced with 0 to 5 wt. % multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were fabricated by mixing the composite powders, as starting materials, in ball mill for 1h and consequently sintered at 550oC using a spark plasma sintering (SPS) apparatus. The microstructures of these composites were characterized by TEM and SEM and also microhardness and compression testing of Al-CNT composites were carried out. The chemical compositional analysis of bulk samples of the spark plasma sintered aluminum-carbon nanotube composites were done by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show the successful synthesis of product by novel SPS method and also the improvement in hardness and compressive strength of Al–1%CNT composite compared to pure Al samples, but then decrease with increasing the content of MWCNTs due to the agglomeration of MWCNTs

Keywords:

Aluminum matrix composites , Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) , Spark plasma sintering (SPS) , Hardness , Compressive strength