Metal Matrix Nanocomposites

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Sharif University of Technology
Fall 2017

G. Pircheraghi, Ph.D.

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Powder metallurgy processing

■ Powder metallurgy (PM) technique is a versatile process for manufacturing

composites with carbonaceous nanofillers due to its simplicity, flexibility and
near net-shape capability.
■ The process involves mechanical blending of nanofillers with metal/alloy
powders in a rotary mill, followed by compaction and sintering, cold isostatic
pressing, hot pressing/hot isostatic pressing, or spark plasma sintering.
■ In certain cases, secondary mechanical deformation treatments such as hot
extrusion, hot forging, hot rollong, friction stir processing and equal channel
angular processing are applied to further consolidate the compacts into full-
dense products.
■ The high cost of raw material powders is the main limitation of PM process.

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Morphology evolution

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 Carbon nanotube structural damage

The D and G peak ratio

characterizes the disorder degree of
carbonaceous materials. It can be
seen that the D/G peak ratio (1.3)
of the 10 vol% MWNT/Al mixture
milled for 5 h is higher than that of
pristine MWNT. A higher D/G ratio
for milling composite powder reveals
the creation of structural defects
during milling.

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Powder metallurgy processing-spark plasma sintering

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 Secondary forming

(a) Photograph and (b) schematic of ECAP die

Schematic of FSP process for fabricating MWNT/Al showing the channel angle K between the entry and
composite exit channels

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Al based nanocomposite

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Electrochemical deposition

■ Conventional MMC coatings reinforced with hard or lubricant microparticles (e.g.

SiC, graphite) have been used widely for tribological applications for structural
components where high wear resistance and low friction are required.
■ Self lubricating coatings offer many advantages over the materials to which
lubricant needs to be applied periodically.
■ A cost-effective process for manufacturing MMNC coatings is electrochemical
deposition due to its ease of operation, versatility and high yield.
■ The process requires the use of an electrochemical cell and a power source in which
an applied current flows between the anode and cathode. The coating is deposited
onto the cathode surface through the reduction of metallic ions from the electrolyte.
■ In contrast, electroless plating does not require electricity from a power generator
for the occurrence of chemical reactions in the bath.

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Direct synthesis of carbon nanomaterials on metal matrix

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Mechanical properties

■ the main goals of the additions of carbonaceous nanomaterials into metals

are the enhancements in both Young’s modulus and tensile strength of
MMNCs.
■ The stiffening and strengthening effects of carbon nanofillers depends
greatly on the achievement of effective stress-transfer across the metal
matrix-filler interface during mechanical tests.
■ The aspect ratio, homogenous dispersion of carbon nanofillers in the matrix,
and the formation of interfacial products also govern the load transfer
efficiency of carbon nanomaterials.
■ Furthermore, metallurgical factors such as Hall–Petch effect due to grain
size refining, Orowan looping and dislocation generation resulting from
thermal mismatch between the matrix and carbon nanomaterials also
contribute to the strengthening effect

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Micromechanical models

■ Micromechanical models predict the response of heterogeneous

composite material from the geometries and properties of e individual
phase components.
■ Micromechanical approaches are well developed for linear elastic
heterogeneous materials, whose macroscopic properties
■ can be obtained by several methods including
■ Eshelby,
■ shear-lag,
■ Halpin–Tsai,
■ Hashin–Shtrikman,

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Micromechanical models

where Ef is the fiber modulus, Em the matrix modulus, Vf the

fiber volume fraction and h is a parameter defined by

where a (=l/d) is the aspect ratio of a fiber with length l and

diameter d, and b is given by

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Micromechanical models

The maximum stress transferred to the fiber is dependent on

its critical length (lc) such that the maximum stress in the
fiber equals to the ultimate fracture strength of fiber (sfu).

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Micromechanical models

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Mechanical properties

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Mechanical properties

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Hardness

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Tribological properties

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