Effect of milling time on microstructural and mechanical properties of nano-Al2O3P/6061Al composites prepared by transient liquid-phase sintering

In this study, 5 vol% Al2O3 nanoparticles reinforced 6061 Al matrix nanocomposite was prepared by me-chanical alloying the corresponding powders followed by hot-pressing. The effect of the milling time on the morphology of powder as well as the microstructure and mechanical properties of resulting nanocompo-sites was studied. The result shows that the effect of the milling time on the mechanical properties of nanocomposites comes from its effect on the distribution of Al2O3 nanoparticles in Al matrix. The long milling time is required to uniformly disperse Al2O3 nanoparticles within Al grains, in order to obtain good mechanical properties. The nanocomposite made from the powder milled for 50 h exhibits a tensile strength of 602 MPa and an elongation to failure of 8.8%, which are higher than those ever reported for the similar materials. The higher mechanical properties are mainly attributed to Orowan strengthening, grain boundary strengthening, and high dislocation density. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study prepared a 5 vol% Al2O3 nanoparticles reinforced 6061 Al matrix nanocomposite by mechanical alloying and hot-pressing. The effect of milling time on the morphology of powder and the microstructure and mechanical properties of nanocomposites was investigated. The results showed that milling time influenced the mechanical properties through the distribution of Al2O3 nanoparticles in the Al matrix. A longer milling time was required to achieve uniform dispersion of Al2O3 nanoparticles within Al grains, resulting in improved mechanical properties. The nanocomposite prepared with 50 hours of milling exhibited a tensile strength of 602 MPa and an elongation to failure of 8.8%, which were higher than those of similar materials reported previously.