MULTI-FUNCTIONAL FULLERENE SOOT/ALUMINA COMPOSITES N^Francisco C. Robles HernandezUniversity of Houston, College of Technology Houston, TX USA 77204-4020Mcrobles@uh.edu

摘要

Here are presented the results of characterization and mechanical testing of composites consisting of alumina matrix reinforced with fullerene soot. The composites were manufactured by mechanical milling, sonication, and spark plasma sintering. Small amounts of Ni and Ti were added as catalyst to in situ synthesize complex carbon structures during thermomechanical processing. Some of the carbon in the soot showed phase transformations to diamond, fullerite, graphene-like particles, etc. that act as effective reinforcement. This resulted in significant improvements in fracture toughness in fully dense samples while preserving relatively high hardness. Electrical resistivity decreases by 15 orders of magnitude. The ahovementioned improvements are attributed to the formation of a homogeneous carbon coating on the alumina particles and the in situ synthesized carbon nanostructures. The type of carbon nanostructure synthesized depends on the catalyst, SPS conditions, and the amount of fullerene soot added.