Influence of Homogenizing Methodology on Mechanical and Tribological Performance of Powder Metallurgy Processed Titanium Composites Reinforced by Graphene Nanoplatelets
Sultan Mahmood,
Amjad Iqbal,
Rafi-ud-Din,
Abdul Wadood,
Abdul Mateen,
Muhammad Amin,
Ibrahim S. Yahia,
Heba Y. Zahran
Affiliations
Sultan Mahmood
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Amjad Iqbal
Department of Materials Technologies, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice 44-100, Poland
Rafi-ud-Din
Materials Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan
Abdul Wadood
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Abdul Mateen
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, Haripur 22621, Pakistan
Muhammad Amin
Department of Energy System Engineering Seoul, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea
Ibrahim S. Yahia
Laboratory of Nano-Smart Materials for Science and Technology (LNSMST), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
Heba Y. Zahran
Laboratory of Nano-Smart Materials for Science and Technology (LNSMST), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia
In the present work, 0.25 wt%GNP-Ti composites were prepared through powder metallurgy route by adopting three types of mixing modes to investigate the extent of mixing on the mechanical and tribological properties. Dry ball milling, wet ball milling, and rotator mixing were independently employed to homogenize the composite constituents. Three types of composite powders obtained were subsequently sintered into composite pellets by cold compaction followed by vacuum sintering. Morphological investigation of composite powders performed by SEM revealed better homogenization of GNPs in Ti matrix for dry ball milled composite powder, whereas wet ball milled and rotator mixed composite powders showed aggregation and bundling of GNPs. Micro Vickers hardness of composites produced via dry ball milling is 4.56% and 15.7% higher than wet ball milled and rotator mixed samples, respectively. Wear test performed by pin-on-disk tribometer showed higher wear loss for wet ball milled and rotator mixed composites in comparison to dry ball milled.
