Tribological behavior of carbon nanotube/aluminosilicate composites prepared through TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol-gel and CVD process

The carbon nanotube (CNT)/aluminosilicate composites were fabricated by the TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol-gel and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method in this study. Two different CVD growing processes were carefully controlled. One is the continuous process, the other is the CVD growing/calcining process. Different process temperatures for different CVD growing/calcining processes were also adopted to fabricate different CNT/aluminosilicate powders. Furthermore, the mechanical properties, the tribological properties and the microstructure observation of the CNT/aluminosilicate composites, which synthesized by hot pressing of powders generated as described above were studied in depth. Experimental results indicate that the TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol-gel with different CVD growing/calcining processes generate different products. The final products from the TEOS/boehmite catalytic sol-gel via the two-step CVD growing/calcining process are mainly Mullite, alpha-Al(2)O(3), cristobalite and CNTs. The hardness tests reveal that the composite made by those products through the two-step CVD reaction show higher hardness than others. In addition, it is found that the CNT/aluminosilicate composites prepared via the two-step CVD growing/calcining process exhibits lower weight losses and friction coefficient. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.