Towards strong and stiff carbon nanotube-reinforced high-strength aluminum alloy composites through a microlaminated architecture design

A microlaminated architecture with aligned interlaminar carbon nanotubes (CNT) was elaborated in Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloy composites fabricated by flake powder metallurgy. The as-designed composites with 2 vol.% CNT exhibit excellent tensile strength of 820 MPa, Young’s modulus of 88 GPa and ductility of 5%. It is proposed that the synergistic effect of the dominant 〈1 1 1〉 fiber texture and effective load transfer to CNT contributes to the property enhancement over the disordered composites, which supplies a new strategy towards strong and stiff metal matrix composites.

[1]  C. Cepeda-Jiménez,et al.  Influence of the Processing Temperature on the Microstructure, Texture, and Hardness of the 7075 Aluminum Alloy Fabricated by Accumulative Roll Bonding , 2010 .

[2]  K. Kondoh,et al.  Fabrication of carbon nanotube reinforced Al composites with well-balanced strength and ductility , 2013 .

[3]  Di Zhang,et al.  Strong and ductile carbon nanotube/aluminum bulk nanolaminated composites with two-dimensional alignment of carbon nanotubes , 2012 .

[4]  J. Shin,et al.  Deformation behavior of Al–Si alloy based nanocomposites reinforced with carbon nanotubes , 2010 .

[5]  C. Cepeda-Jiménez,et al.  Effect of thermal treatment on the interfacial shear toughness of an aluminium composite laminate , 2010 .

[6]  Brian L. Wardle,et al.  Fabrication and Nanocompression Testing of Aligned Carbon‐Nanotube–Polymer Nanocomposites , 2007 .

[7]  James M. Tour,et al.  Materials Science: Nanotube composites , 2007, Nature.

[8]  C. Cepeda-Jiménez,et al.  Impact toughness improvement of high-strength aluminium alloy by intrinsic and extrinsic fracture mechanisms via hot roll bonding , 2009 .

[9]  W. Wang,et al.  Singly dispersed carbon nanotube/aluminum composites fabricated by powder metallurgy combined with friction stir processing , 2012 .

[10]  S. R. Bakshi,et al.  Dual strengthening mechanisms induced by carbon nanotubes in roll bonded aluminum composites , 2009 .

[11]  S. Han,et al.  Strength and strain hardening of aluminum matrix composites with randomly dispersed nanometer-length fragmented carbon nanotubes , 2013 .

[12]  S. Hong,et al.  Synergistic strengthening by load transfer mechanism and grain refinement of CNT/Al-Cu composites , 2012 .

[13]  T. Ebbesen,et al.  Exceptionally high Young's modulus observed for individual carbon nanotubes , 1996, Nature.

[14]  R. Ritchie The conflicts between strength and toughness. , 2011, Nature materials.

[15]  R. Jayaganthan,et al.  Microstructure and texture evolution in cryorolled Al 7075 alloy , 2010 .

[16]  H. Höppel,et al.  Ultrafine‐grained AA6014/AA5754 laminates produced by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) , 2012 .

[17]  Di Zhang,et al.  The use of flake powder metallurgy to produce carbon nanotube (CNT)/aluminum composites with a homogenous CNT distribution , 2012 .

[18]  N. Fréty,et al.  Mechanical reinforcement of a high-performance aluminium alloy AA5083 with homogeneously dispersed multi-walled carbon nanotubes , 2012 .

[19]  J. Shin,et al.  Strengthening in nanostructured 2024 aluminum alloy and its composites containing carbon nanotubes , 2011 .

[20]  E. A. Starke,et al.  Progress in structural materials for aerospace systems , 2003 .

[21]  S. R. Bakshi,et al.  An analysis of the factors affecting strengthening in carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum composites , 2011 .