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

doi:10.3390/molecules27092666

Influence of Homogenizing Methodology on Mechanical and Tribological Performance of Powder Metallurgy Processed Titanium Composites Reinforced by Graphene Nanoplatelets

Molecules. 2022 Apr 21;27(9):2666. doi: 10.3390/molecules27092666.

Authors

Sultan Mahmood¹, Amjad Iqbal^{2

3}, Rafi-Ud-Din⁴, Abdul Wadood¹, Abdul Mateen⁵, Muhammad Amin⁶, Ibrahim S Yahia^{7

8

9}, Heba Y Zahran^{7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
² Department of Materials Technologies, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice 44-100, Poland.
³ CEMMPRE-Centre for Mechanical Engineering Materials and Processes, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luı's Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴ Materials Division, Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Islamabad 45650, Pakistan.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pak-Austria Fachhochschule Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, Haripur 22621, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Energy System Engineering Seoul, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
⁷ 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.
⁸ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, P.O. Box 9004, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Nanoscience Laboratory for Environmental and Biomedical Applications (NLEBA), Semiconductor Lab., Metallurgical Lab.1, Department of Physics, Faculty of Education, Ain Shams University, Roxy, Cairo 11757, Egypt.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: graphene nanoplatelets; mechanical properties; morphology; titanium; titanium matrix composites; tribological properties.