Effect of carbon black nano-fillers on tribological properties of Al6061-Aluminium metal matrix composites

Nano-metal-matrix composites (NMCs) are novel composite materials in which nano-phase such as nano-particles, nano-rods, nano-structured materials are reinforced with metals or alloys to improve the physical, mechanical, wear and other properties. The results of previous works have shown that the addition of nanoclay reinforcement to aluminium alloys has improved the hardness, tensile strength and Young's modulus. Hence, the present work is focused on development and characterisation of nanoclay reinforced NMCs. Evaluating the effect of the reinforcement on the important physical properties such as wear property studies were carried out. The wear results exhibited reduction in wear volume compared to the unreinforced alloy specimens and the coefficient of friction is lower at higher loads. The wear loss of MMCs as well as the matrix alloy increased with the increase in applied load. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.