The effect of Al2O3 content on tribology and corrosion properties of Mg-Al2O3 nanocomposites produced by single and double-action press
Introduction
Composites and nanocomposites as multi-component materials are combined to achieve new properties [1]. The nanocomposites based on the matrix materials are divided into three classes of polymeric, ceramic, and metallic. Moreover, based on the reinforcement materials, they are divided into three categories of fiber, layered, and particle [2]. Metal-matrix composites are used in important engineering applications such as the automotive and aerospace industries because of their flexibility, hardness, and high strength [3]. Using ceramic reinforcing particles improves the yield and ultimate tensile strength of the matrix, as well as creating different chemical and corrosion-resistant properties [4]. In the automotive and aviation industries, metals and alloys are very popular. These materials, including Mg, in addition to being lightweight, have a high specific strength, which means having high strength to weight ratio [5]. Pure Mg is less commonly used in sensitive parts because its mechanical and resistance properties are not suitable in the face of abrasion and corrosion [5]. The wear and corrosion resistance of Mg metal is low, but using ceramic and metal reinforcing phases such as SiC, TiC, TiB2, TiO2, Al2O3, and Mg2Si improves these properties [6,7]. Moreover, several methods such as powder metallurgy (PM) [5], mechanical alloying method [8], hot roll-bonding method [[9], [10], [11]], spark plasma sintering method [12], have been developed to fabricate metal matrix composites (MMCs). One of the mentioned methods in producing nanocomposites is the powder metallurgy method, which involves mixing and compressing powders into their dies and sintering [13]. Manufacturing nanocomposites by powder metallurgy has many advantages over other methods. Therefore, this method has received much attention compared to other methods [13]. The powder metallurgy methods can be quasi-static compressions with help of single-action press (SP) and double-action press (DP) in cold and hot conditions. Although increasing the percentage of reinforcement particles and pressure may lead to decreasing wear or corrosion rate but, there are lots of researches that reported these properties increased by increasing reinforcement particles due to the agglomeration particles in the sample or even at inappropriate pressure [14,15]. Rahmani and Majzoobi [13] investigated the effect of nanoparticle percentages and temperature on the properties of Mg nanocomposite reinforcement by nanoparticles produced by the hot press method. The results show that with increasing the nanoparticle percentages, the relative density of the samples decreased and the microhardness and compressive strength of the samples increased. Also, as the temperature rises, the density and microhardness of the samples increase. The results of the dynamic and quasi-static pressure tests showed that the produced nanocomposite samples at high strain rates have better properties so that the dynamic strength was achieved 55% higher than the quasi-static strength. Majzoobi et al. [16] investigated the different strain rates on the mechanical properties of Mg matrix nanocomposites and reported that with increasing strain rates, higher relative density and mechanical properties obtained for the samples. There have been numerous reports of powder compression in DP. Wanquan et al. [17] investigated the effect of pressure on the uniform density distribution of produced matrix frictional materials Aluminum Bronze samples by SP and DP. They showed that the DP method is better than the SP method and provides a higher density. Wei et al. [18] numerically investigated the effect of DP on properties of Fe-Al composite reinforced by 20%Al produced by multi-particle finite element method (MPFEM). In their studies, they showed that in the DP method, particle arrangement had a better effect on compression than SP method and fewer holes were observed. Bonaccorsi et al. [19] examined the physical and mechanical properties of Al-TiH2 composite produced by SP and DP methods. The results showed that there was an improvement in the properties of DP method and observed the effect of friction and lubrication of the mold during compression. In addition to the mentioned studies, Wang et al. [20] numerically and experimentally investigated the density and compression mechanism of Cu-Al mixed powder with SP and DP and compared the compressive properties in both compression modes. Furthermore, they performed a corrosion and abrasion research for this purpose. Fini et al. [21] improved the surface properties by applying Ni-SiC nanocomposite coating on AZ91 alloys. The coating method was used in the pulse electroplating method and the effects of the pulse parameters such as current, frequency of current applied, working cycle, and the effect of SiC concentration were investigated. The microhardness test results showed a 600% improvement in microhardness due to the coating application. To study the corrosion resistance and wear changes in the samples, the dynamic polarization and wear tests were performed on the samples. The results showed that the corrosion rate and wear rate improved by about 94%. In another investigation, Gan et al. [22] reported an improvement in the corrosion behavior of the porous aluminum by adding carbon network reinforcements in the seawater, due to the existence of this additive and the oxidized state of the sintered aluminum.
In this study, Mg matrix nanocomposites with different volumes (0, 1.5, 3, and 5%) of Al2O3 reinforcing nanoparticles were produced using the quasi-static powder metallurgy method in SP and DP at pressures of 300, 500, and 700 MPa that. The samples were sintered in a furnace with argon gas at 450 °C for 2 h. Also, the effects of different pressure on the physical, tribological, and corrosion properties of Mg-Al2O3 nanocomposites were investigated that all of them related to each other and DP method has never been used for corrosion rate of Mg nanocomposite according to the previous literature. The SEM images of the samples were also prepared for microstructural interpretation and validation, as well as the wear and corrosion study of the specimens. T the best of authors’ knowledge, to date, only a few studies have been performed on the experimental production of nanocomposites by DP method. These studies are mostly numerical. The main objective of this study is the experimental investigation of SP and DP effects on the properties of Mg reinforcement by Al2O3 nanoparticles.
Section snippets
Experimental procedure
To produce Mg-Al2O3 nanocomposite, Mg powder with an average size of 63 μm with irregular spherical morphology as a matrix and Al2O3 powder with an average size of 50 nm with spherical morphology with 99% purity were prepared as a reinforcing nanoparticle. Fig. 1 shows the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of Mg and Al2O3.
Pure Mg was combined and mixed with Al2O3 reinforcing particles in different volumes (0, 1.5, 3, and 5%). A planetary mill with argon gas at a speed of 300 rpm for 1 h
Microstructural
By mixing the matrix and reinforcing powders and compressing the nanocomposite powders, samples with specific dimensions were produced (Fig. 3).
Fig. 4 shows the SEM images of the sintered nanocomposite samples which were compressed at 700 MPa pressure by SP and DP methods. As shown in this figure, the nanoparticles have a uniform distribution in the nanocomposite samples. Furthermore, the boundaries and bright lines in the figure represent the Al2O3 nanoparticles located between the Mg
Conclusion
In this study, the effects of reinforcement percentage, pressure values, and the behavior of DP and SP methods on the wear and corrosion properties of Mg/Al2O3 nanocomposite were investigated. The results are as follows.
- 1.
Increasing the pressure and applying the DP method in the produced samples resulted in an increase in the density and reduced the wear rate.
- 2.
The highest obtained experimental density (i.e., 1.77gr/cm3) was for the Mg-5 vol% Al2O3-700 MPa-DP, which is only 4% different from the
CRediT authorship contribution statement
K. Rahmani: Conceptualization, Validation, Investigation, Visualization. A. Sadooghi: Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. S.J. Hashemi: Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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