The effect of sintering temperature on the mechanical properties of a Cu/CNT nanocomposite prepared via a powder metallurgy method

Abstract

Metal matrix nanocomposites have become popular in industrial applications. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), since theirs appearance, with their unique properties such as exceptionally small diameters and high Young's modulus, tensile strength and high chemical stability, are considered to be an attractive reinforcement material for lightweight and high-strength metallic matrix composites. The powder metallurgy method allows nanocomposite materials, notably metal–ceramic composites, to be produced by sintering a mixture of powders. In this study, we have utilized the powder metallurgy method to fabricate a Cu/CNT nanocomposite. Sintering is the important process in this method; it is the process whereby powder compacts are heated so that adjacent particles fuse together. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of sintering temperature on the mechanical properties of the Cu/CNT nanocomposite. The sintering temperature was in the range of 850–950 °C for 2 h. A correlation between the microstructure and mechanical properties, including the microstructure, density, hardness and compressive strength, is established. In this process, the density, and the physical and mechanical properties of the nanocomposites, can be changed, depending on the rate of sintering as well as the sintering temperature.

Influence of dispersion/mixture time on mechanical properties of Al–CNTs nanocomposites

“…Several techniques have been suggested as suitable for production of these nanocomposites, such as conventional sintering [10,11], hot pressing [12,13], deformation processing [14], thermal spraying [15,16] and spark plasma sintering [17]. However, sintering followed by deformation processes appears to be the most promising technique [18][19][20]. The main disadvantage of these processing technologies is that they require a high temperature, which may damage the CNTs, or can lead to a reaction between them and the matrix.…”

Field electron emission from a copper-based composite reinforced with carbon nanotubes

“…Therefore, a significant interest has been given to the studies on CNT reinforced metal matrix nanocomposites in recent years. Different techniques have been proposed to process the composites: conventional sintering [5,6], hot pressing [7,8], spark plasma sintering [9,10], flake powder metallurgy [11,12], molecular level mixing [13,14] etc.…”

Carbon Nanotube (CNT)-Reinforced Metal Matrix Bulk Composites: Manufacturing and Evaluation

“…But also selfproduced CNTs are used for composite manufacturing. For this purpose, catalytic chemical vapour deposition (CCVD) is the most common way to synthesize CNTs that are used as reinforcement phase in composites [6,7,10,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. The MWCNTs generally show a purity between 90% [10] and 99.5% [19], but mostly around 95%.…”