Investigation on the dispersion mechanism of carbon nanotubes in Al matrix during processing of Al-CNT nanocomposite using slurry based method

In this paper, the slurry based method has been used to produce the Al-CNT nanocomposite accompanying the suitable protection of CNTs. For this purpose, the carboxyl functionalized CNTs and Al@PVA powder were mixed in water environment after adding the SDS surfactant and diluted nitritic acid for controlling the PH. Consequently, the hydrogen bonding between the surface agents of constituents and temporary polarity due to the surfactant and acid hydrolyzation could lead to stabillazation of suspention at PH=5 and the final composite powder was settled in beaker without any external force or physical stress and it is absoloutely obtained from chemical reaction. The chemical analyze of initial materials in each step was performed by IR and Raman experiments and the microstructure of initial materials and final nanocomposite has been studied through SEM and FE-SEM, respectively.