Development and characterisation of magnesium matrix nanocomposite

Abstract

In this work, a light weight magnesium matrix composite reinforced newlinewith TiO2 nanoparticulates was developed through powder metallurgy process newlineand further characterized for their physical, mechanical, microstructural, newlinetribological and machinability behaviour in order to justify its suitability for newlineboth structural and biomedical specific applications. Magnesium matrix newlinenanocomposite was fabricated in three different compositions by varying TiO2 newlinenanoparticulate reinforcement content as 1.5, 2.5 and 5 % by weight. The newlinefabrication process involves isostatic cold compaction at 960 MPa followed by newlinetwo stage hybrid microwave sintering and subsequently hot extrusion at 350and#8451; newlinein order to minimize the porosity and improve the grain refinement of matrix in newlinethe composite. The influence of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles on newlinemagnesium matrix have been characterized for mass density, 2D and 3D micro newlinegraphical analysis, elemental analysis and mechanical behaviour by using newlineHe-gas pycnometer, optical microscope field emission scanning electron newlinemicroscope with energy dispersive spectroscopy (FESEM-EDS), newlinemicro-computed tomography (and#956;CT), X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), vickers newlinemicrohardness tester, nanoindenter and universal testing machine respectively. newlineThe Tribological behaviour of fabricated samples has been investigated by newlineusing pin on disc tribometer under dry sliding conditions at room temperature newlinewith an Oil Hardened Non-shrinking die Steel (OHNS) counter disc. newlineReinforcement content, normal load and sliding velocity are considered as newlinevariable input parameters for evaluating the wear performance of the newlinecomposite. The wear experiments were conducted for the processing condition newlinesuch as normal loads of 0.5, 1 and 2 kg, sliding velocities of 1.5, 2 and 2.5 m/s and newlineconstant sliding distance and wear track diameter of 1500 m and 90 mm newlinerespectively. newline