Development and evaluation of polyvinyl alcohol films reinforced with carbon nanotubes and alumina for manufacturing hybrid metal matrix composites by the sandwich technique

Abstract

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have been a fundamental element in the development of technologies related to the aerospace and automotive industries. This is because they have an excellent weight-to-strength ratio, i.e., they are light materials with a high mechanical resistance. In the manufacturing of MMCs, the incorporation and homogeneous dispersion of reinforcements in the matrix has been one of the biggest challenges. The issue has expanded to the manufacturing of materials reinforced with nano-scaled particles. This study is aimed at the manufacturing, optimization, and characterization of the polymeric matrix reinforced with carbon nanotubes and alumina (hybrid composites), in order to use the polymeric matrix as an inclusion vehicle of the nano-reinforcements in a metallic matrix. The synthesis of the polymeric matrix composites was carried out by a solution mixing technique using polyvinyl alcohol as a matrix. For the reinforcement's dispersion, a magnetic stirring and sonication were used. Finally, the solution was put into a petri dish to allow its polymerization. The nano-reinforcement dispersion qualification and the quantification of the polymer matrix composite were carried out through the tension, nanoindentation, dynamical mechanical analysis test, elastic modulus mapping, and statistical model for dispersion. In addition, a preliminary study of the metallic composite was carried out and was fabricated by the sandwich technique. The initial characterization of the composites was performed through the nanoindentation test.

Keywords

• hybrid composite materials
• alumina
• carbon nanotubes
• polyvinyl alcohol
• dispersion
• mechanical properties