Al-SiC nanocomposites produced by ball milling and spark plasma sintering

In this work Al-SiC nanocomposites were prepared by high energy ball milling followed by spark plasma sintering of the powder. For this purpose Al micro-powder was mixed with 50 nm diameter SiC nanoparticles. The final composites had grains of approximately 100 nm dimensions, with SiC particles located mostly at grain boundaries. To characterize their mechanical behavior, uniaxial compression, micro- and nano-indentation were performed. Materials with 1vol% SiC as well as nanocrystalline Al produced by the same means with the composite were processed, tested and compared. AA1050 was also considered for reference. It was concluded that the yield stress of the nanocomposite with 1 vol% SiC is 10 times larger than that of regular pure Al (AA1050). Nanocrystalline Al without SiC and processed by the same method has a yield stress 7 times larger than AA1050. Therefore, the largest increase is due to the formation of nanograins, with the SiC particles' role being primarily that of stabilizing the grains. This was demonstrated by performing annealing experiments at 150°C and 250°C for 2h, in separate experiments.