Structural integrity and dispersion characteristics of carbon nanotubes in titanium-based alloy

Abstract: Over the years, carbon nanotubes have attracted much attention in engineering materials research due to their outstanding and superlative properties. Owing to the demands for lightweight materials with excellent mechanical and thermal properties for diverse industrial applications encouraged the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into titanium alloys. However, there are various challenges associated with the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into titanium alloys which includes; uniform dispersion and retaining the structural integrity of carbon nanotubes after dispersion. Past works have emphasized the importance of homogeneous dispersion with less structural damage to the carbon nanotubes in the various metal matrix. Therefore, this research focused on dispersion of 0.5 wt. % multiwalled carbon nanotubes in Ti6Al4V using low energy ball milling and evaluating the dispersion characteristics and structural integrity of MWCNTs in Ti6Al4V after dispersion. Various characterization techniques such as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-Ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were adopted to ascertain the microstructural evolution, morphology, interfacial reaction and structural integrity of the carbon nanotubes in the Ti6Al4V powders before and after dispersion. The results indicated homogeneous dispersion of carbon nanotubes with less structural damages which are confirmed from the (ID/IG) ratio of the Raman spectra and the TEM images

Effect of alkali treatment on composites made from recycledpolyethylene and chestnut cupula

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of alkali treatment on themechanical, physical properties of cupula fibers reinforced recycled high density poly-ethylene (r-HDPE) composites. The composites were produced with different chestnut(Castanea sativaMill.) cupula fiber contents, up to 50%, and polyethylene-graftedmaleic anhydride. The mechanical, physical, thermal, and morphological properties ofthe treated and untreated samples were investigated. In addition, the Fourier transforminfrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used toobserve the interactions and functionalgroups between cupula fiber and r-HDPE inthe composite samples. The alkali treat-ment with 5 wt% NaOH solution had an affirmative effect on the tensile and flexuralproperties. It was found that an increase of 20% in flexural strength values with up to40 wt% alkali treated cupulafiber loading in polymer matrixcomparedtothatofuntreated samples. After 5 wt% NaOH treatment, the crystallinity decreased with theincrease of the chestnut cupula fiber ratio. As excepted, the FTIR analysis showed thatthe alkali treatment resulted in removal of hemicellulose, and lignin from cupula fiber.The results revealed that the alkali treatedchestnut cupula fiber can be used success-fully in polymer composites as a natural fiber fille