A comprehensive study of Al-Cu-Mg system reinforced with nano-ZrO2 particles synthesized by powder metallurgy technique

Abstract Recently, increasing attention has been devoted to improving the various properties of aluminum alloys such as strength, elastic modulus, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as well as wear and corrosion by adding different percentages of ceramics for use in various industrial applications. In this sense, powder metallurgy technique has been used to fabricate Al-4.2 wt.% Cu-1.6 wt.% Mg matrix nanocomposites reinforced by different weight percentages of nano-ZrO2 particles. The microstructure and particle size distributions of the prepared powders were examined by SEM, TEM technique and diffraction particle size analyzer. The prepared powders were compacted and sintered in argon to obtain good sinterability. The physical, elastic and mechanical properties of the sintered nanocomposites were measured. Furthermore, thermal expansion, wear and corrosion behavior were also studied. The results showed that the decrease in the particle sizes of the Al-Cu-Mg alloy by adding ZrO2 nanoparticles up to 47.8 nm for the composite containing 16 wt.% ZrO2. With increasing the sintering temperature to 570 °C, the densification of nanocomposites was clearly enhanced. Also, the coefficient of thermal expansion and wear rate were remarkably decreases about 28 and 37.5 % with adding after adding 16 wt. % ZrO2. Moreover, microhardness yield, strength and Young’s modulus were enhanced to 161, 145 and 64%, respectively after adding 16 wt.% ZrO2. In addition, increasing the exposure time was responsible for decreasing the corrosion rate for the same sample.