Corrosion, mechanical and thermal properties of aluminium alloy metal matrix nano composites (AA-MMNCs) with multi-walled carbon nanotubes

This paper is intended to study mechanical, corrosion and thermal properties of aluminium metal matrix composites with Multiwalled carbon nanotubes as reinforcements. In the present study, aluminium base alloy (LM 9) is reinforced with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in 1%, 2 and 3% using stir casting. Tests are conducted to evaluate for hardness, thermal behavior under varying temperature, and thermal conductivity to assess the influence of MWCNTs as reinforcements. The results indicate that Aluminium-MWCNTs composites possess improved mechanical properties. DSC thermographs indicate that there is no change in the thermal behavior of the composites under varying temperature conditions. Thermal conductivity measured using hot disc thermal analyzer showed a marginal reduction in the thermal conductivity due to increase in density of microstructure and resulting improved hardness.