Experimental Investigation on Compression and Chemical Properties of Aluminium Nano Composite

Aluminium metal matrix composites are being widely investigated with Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) as one of their reinforcing agents. This is done in order to improve the mechanical strength of the composite. Various studies on this concept have already been recorded. In this study, Aluminium has been reinforced with CNTs using powder metallurgy technique. The powders of aluminium and CNT are ball milled, compacted in a die made up of die steel, and then sintered. The specimens thus obtained were subjected to hardness, compression and chemical tests and the values were compared with pure aluminium specimen fabricated by same technique. The study indicated that there was no improvement in hardness of the composite on addition of CNT. The compressive strength of the composite was increased by 143.58 MPa. The microstructure of pure aluminium and Al-CNT composite had fine grains of pure aluminium particles and Al-Si eutectic particles throughout the matrix phase.