The morphological effects of hydrothermal carbon on mechanical, tribological and corrosion properties of AlSi12 composite

Although aluminum and its composites have been used in many applications, their mechanical properties should be improved for use in wider applications. Hence, specially nanosized and sub-micron sized carbonaceous additives were used. As far as is known, hydrothermal carbons (HTCs) have not yet been used in aluminum-silicon matrix composites. In this study, two different morphologies of HTCs were synthesized from cellulose and chitosan. With the use of chitosan, the particle morphology of HTCs was changed from hard spheres to smaller aggregated spheres. Both HTCs had a positive effect on mechanical (hardness >%18, and ultimate compression strength >%9) and tribological properties (wear rate >% 14) and they caused only limited decrement of corrosion resistance (corrosion rate <%13). The aggregated spheres possessed HTCs presented better mechanical, tribological and corrosive properties than those the hard spheres possessed.

Automated summary

The study aimed to improve the mechanical properties of aluminum and its composites by using nanosized and sub-micron sized carbonaceous additives, specifically hydrothermal carbons (HTCs) synthesized from cellulose and chitosan. The chitosan-derived aggregated spheres of HTCs showed better mechanical, tribological, and corrosive properties compared to the hard spheres.