Powder metallurgy routes toward aluminum boron nitride nanotube composites, their morphologies, structures and mechanical properties

Aluminum/boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) composites with up to 5 wt% (i.e., 9.7 vol%) nanotube fractions were prepared via spark plasma sintering (SPS) and high-pressure torsion (HPT) methods. Various microscopy techniques, X-ray diffraction, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed the integration of the two phases into decently dense and compact composites. No other phases, like Al borides or nitrides, formed in the Al–BNNTs macrocomposites of the two series. The BNNTs were found to be preferentially located along Al grain boundaries in SPS samples (grain size was 10–20 μm) creating micro-discontinuities and pores which were found to be detrimental for the sample hardness, whereas in HPT samples, the tubes were rather evenly distributed within a fine-grained Al matrix (grain size of several hundred nm). Therefore, the hardness of HPT samples was drastically increased with increasing BNNTs content in Al pellets. The value for Al–BNNT 3.0 wt% sample was more than doubled (190 MPa) compared to a pure Al–HPT compact (90 MPa). And the room temperature ultimate tensile strength of Al–BNNTs HPT samples containing 3.0 wt% BNNT (∼300 MPa) became ∼1.5 times larger than that of a BNNT-free HPT–Al compact (∼200 MPa)