Magnesium and Aluminium Carbon Nanotube Composites

Carbon nanotubes are one of the most exciting discoveries of nanosized materials in the 20th century. Challenges to create materials applicable for industrial applications involve both the incorporation of the carbon nanotubes into the material and to ensure that they do not agglomerate. Aluminium and magnesium based materials are among the metals that can benefit from the incorporation of carbon nanotubes. The fabrication of Aluminium carbon nanotube composites has challenges from reactivity and degradation of the carbon nanotube additions; hence the powder metallurgy route is preferred. Magnesium based materials on the other hand do not have this limitation and both the powder metallurgical route and the casting route are viable. Among the benefits of adding carbon nanotubes are increased yield strength and stiffness. Here is important that the effect is significant already at very low addition levels. This makes it possible to increase strength without having a significant detrimental effect on ductility. In fact, for magnesium alloys ductility can be improved due to the activation of additional slip planes improving the normally low ductility of HCP structure materials.