FABRICATION OF CARBON NANOTUBE-REINFORCED ALUMINIUM MATRIXCOMPOSITE USING POWDER METALLURGY

Abstract

Carbon nanotube reinforced Aluminium (CNT-Al) nanocomposites with four different concentrations of 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 wt% CNT were successfully fabricated using powder metallurgy route. Ball milling parameters such as preliminary mixing of CNT and Al in a tube via manual hand shaking and process control agent (PCA) were considered for the homogeneous and uniform dispersion of CNT in aluminium matrix with lower milling time. The characterization of CNT-Al mixed powder and CNT-Al nanocomposite were performed using SEM, FESEM, EDX and XRD analyzer. Density was measured using a digital densitometer and compared with the theoretical relative density. It was found that, 1 wt% CNT has the highest percentage of the relative density of 8.40%, Whilst 1.5 and 2 wt% showed almost same value for the relative density (≈77%), however, 2.5 wt% CNT in nanocomposite showed a slightly lower relative density of  74% indicating more lighter than 1.5 and 2 wt% CNT composition.The morphology of the developed CNT-Al nanocomposite showed uniform and homogeneous dispersion of CNT in the Al matrix. And 1.5 wt% CNT was assumed to have better and uniform CNT dispersion and it was achieved within short time of 250 and 300 rpm milling speed. Uniform and homogeneously dispersed CNT has a significant effect in reducing the weight of Al which lead to the achievement of the light weight CNT-Al nanocomposite.