This paper succinctly reviews from the corpus of literature the reinforcement of aluminium with carbonaceous nanocompounds (CNTs, GNPs, graphenes etc.), with particular emphasis on the strength and ductility of the resulting composites based on the utilized fabrication routes. Owing to the unique intrinsic properties of these carbonaceous nanocompounds, they have been widely reported as ideal reinforcement materials for aluminium and its compounds. Significant amount of work has been published on the use of solid-state sintering as a novel route for the incorporation of these nanocompounds in aluminium matrices. This paper therefore aims to review some relevant aspects of the fabrication processes of these aluminium based composites such as (i) effects of the sintering routes and parameters on the resulting properties of the composites; (ii) the effect of dispersion techniques on the resulting properties of the composites; (iii) the strength-ductility trade-off in the reinforced composites; and (iv) the intermetallics formed between the carbonaceous nanocompounds and aluminium.

Influence of sintering methods on the mechanical properties of aluminium nanocomposites reinforced with carbonaceous compounds: A review

A novel heat-resistant Al–Si–Cu–Ni–Mg base material synergistically strengthened by Ni-rich intermetallics and nano-AlNp microskeletons

Review on development of metal/ceramic interpenetrating phase composites and critical analysis of their properties

The current study aims to investigate the effects of process parameters on mechanical and microstructural characteristics of Al 6061-SiC composite fabricated via squeeze casting. Seventeen experiments in total have been conducted according to Box-Behnken experimental design which contained three process parameters (squeeze pressure, melt temperature, and SiC wt.%) while recording the responses including ultimate tensile strength, hardness, and percentage elongation. ANOVA (analysis of variance) was employed to evaluate the significance and prediction capability of mathematical models developed through regression analysis. The results indicate that squeeze pressure, melt temperature, and SiC wt.% significantly affect the responses whereas ductility is drastically reduced at higher concentrations of SiC reinforcement. SEM micrographs of failed test specimen have been found to be indicative of ductile fracture at higher levels of squeeze pressure and melt temperature. The multi-objective optimization problem has been transformed to an equivalent single-objective problem using grey relation analysis. The desirability analysis revealed optimum setting of process parameters which was confirmed to have improved the ultimate tensile strength by 1.61%, hardness by 1.56%, and percentage elongation by 11.11% as compared to the initial setting.

Multi-response parametric optimization of squeeze casting process for fabricating Al 6061-SiC composite

Negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials can compensate high thermal expansion of metal materials, showing great potential use in precision instruments and microelectronics field. We developed a near-zero thermal expansion ZrW2O8/Al–Si composites with three dimensional mutually interpenetrated structure. Pressure infiltration ensured dense structure and mild interface reaction. The resulting composite has ultra-low thermal expansion (1.09 × 10−6 K−1) in a broad temperature range of −50 to 120 °C (ΔT = 170 °C). The content of high pressure phase (γ-ZrW2O8) drops dramatically from 71.4% for the particle reinforced composite to 18.7% for the interpenetrating composite. Raman tests and numerical computational results indicated that the residual stress can be effectively released in the interpenetrating composites. This low dense and ultralow thermal expansion results in ideal materials for precision instruments and microelectronics component such as optical communication and gyroscope.

Shiang Zhou

Papers

Enhanced thermal conductive 3D-SiC/Al-Si-Mg interpenetrating composites fabricated by pressureless infiltration

Interface design in 3D-SiC/Al-Si-Mg interpenetrating composite fabricated by pressureless infiltration

Multimodal particle distribution in 3D-SiC/Al-Si-Mg interpenetrating composite fabricated by pressureless infiltration