Mechanical alloying of CuFe-alumina nanocomposite: study of microstructure, corrosion, and wear properties

The effects of adding Al2O3 nanoparticles on the microstructure, tribological, magnetic, and corrosion properties of CuFe-Al2O3 nanocomposites were investigated in this work. The mixture of Cu-25 wt.% Fe powder with 5 vol.% Al2O3 was mechanically milled. X-ray diffraction results revealed that after 60 h of mechanical alloying, CuFe solid solution was formed. Magnetic hysteresis loops of the mechanically alloyed powders were extracted at room temperature. The morphology and elemental analysis of the sintered specimens were studied by field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was observed that uniform distribution and embedding of Al2O3 nanoparticles in the CuFe alloy matrix in nanocomposites were achieved, which exhibited excellent performances. Tribological properties were evaluated through a pin-on-disk wear test, and it was found that by the addition of Al2O3 nanoparticles to CuFe alloy, the weight loss rate was reduced by 30%. The existence of Al2O3 nanoparticles in the matrix of CuFe alloy causes the wear mechanism change from adhesive to abrasive, which means a considerable wear resistance was obtained in nanocomposites. The corrosion properties of the sintered samples in a solution of 3.5% NaCl were studied by potentiodynamic polarization. With the addition of Al2O3 nanoparticles, the corrosion rate of the alloy was reduced by 75%