Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Aluminium Matrix Composites – A Review.

Abstract

The present paper illustrates mixing procedures for Al-CNTs powder preparation alongside depiction of the CNTs dispersion results from the different mixing techniques. XRD analysis showed that the mean grain size of powders milled for 6 h was found to be 48.4 nm and for extrudates of CNT-Al, it is 56.6 nm. Based on the geometry and physical properties of multiwalled nanotubes, three strengthening mechanisms were considered for CNT/Al composite system. It was evident from the testing that as the content of nanotubes in the matrix increased, the micro-hardness measured on the Vickers scale also increased. The investigation of the damping behaviour of 2024Al-CNT composite showed that the damping capacity of the composite with a frequency of 0.5 Hz reaches 975 x 10-3, and the storage modulus is 82.3 GPa when the temperature is 400˚ C, which shows that CNTs are a promising reinforcement for metal matrix composites to obtain high damping capabilities at an elevated temperature without sacrificing the mechanical strength and stiffness of a metal matrix.