Mechanical and structural properties of aluminium nanocomposites reinforced with cerium oxide nanoparticles fabricated by powder metallurgy

The metal matrix nanocomposites were synthesized by the powder metallurgy method with Ceria (CeO2) nanoparticles (1, 2, 3, 4 wt.%) as reinforcement contained within an Aluminium (Al) metal matrix. The structural and mechanical properties of Al were studied as a function of the concentration of reinforced CeO2 nanoparticles. The Ceria nanoparticles were synthesized by using the Co-precipitation technique with a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure with an average crystallite size of 12.80 nm. The structural analysis of the nanocomposites confirms the uniform dispersion of CeO2 nanoparticles in an Al matrix. There is a significant development in the hardness value of Al due to the CeO2 nanoparticles and the maximum hardness value was obtained for 2 wt. % of CeO2 in the Al matrix, while an increase in the wear of the Al-CeO2 nanocomposites was observed as compared to pure aluminium. The corrosion analysis also confirms the improvement in the corrosion resistance of the Al-CeO2 nanocomposite with a maximum corrosion resistance efficiency of 83.75 % for 4 wt.% CeO2 in the Al matrix.