Mechanical Alloying and Characterization of Cu70Ti20Ni10 and Cu70Ti20Ni10-Alumina Nanocomposite

Alumina nanoparticles were added to CuTiNi alloy to study their effect on microstructure, tribological properties, and corrosion behaviors of the fabricated alloy. A mixture of Cu-20 wt% Ti-10 wt% Ni powder with 0 and 5 wt% alumina was mixed in a high-energy ball mill. Results indicated that CuTiNi solid solution was formed after 40 h of mechanical alloying. Magnetic hysteresis loops of the mechanically alloyed powders were extracted at room temperature. The mechanically alloyed powders were compacted and then conventionally sintered. Tribological properties of sintered samples were evaluated by ball-on-disk wear test. Comparing the wear rate of the nanocomposite with that of CuTiNi alloy indicated that addition of alumina nanoparticles decreased the wear rate by about 40 %. Corrosion behavior of sintered samples studied using cyclic potentiodynamic polarization in 3.5 % NaCl solution revealed that corrosion current density of the nanocomposite was decreased by about 98 % compared to that of CuTiNi alloy.