Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730

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Materials and Design

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Microstructure and properties of in situ generated MgAl2O4 spinel whisker

reinforced aluminum matrix composites
Yang Zhou, Zhenyang Yu, Naiqin Zhao ⇑, Chunsheng Shi, Enzuo Liu, Xiwen Du, Chunnian He
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials,
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, 300072 Tianjin, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, a novel MgAl2O4 spinel whisker reinforced composite was synthesized in situ in an Al
Received 6 September 2012 matrix by a powder metallurgy technique. In MgAl2O4/Al composite, the whisker content was varied from
Accepted 10 November 2012 3% to 15% in weight and each one was completely investigated. The as-produced MgAl2O4/Al composites
Available online 28 November 2012
were hot extruded and MgAl2O4/Al composites rods with high relative density were obtained. Both the
hardness and the softening temperature of the composites increased with increasing content of MgAl2O4
Keywords: whisker. The dilatometric measurements show that MgAl2O4 whisker reinforced Al composites exhibit
Metal–matrix composites
better thermal stability and lower thermal expansion coefficient than aluminum alloys. Moreover, wear
Extrusion
Magnesium alloys
resistance is also enhanced due to the formation of the whisker-formed network structure which is capa-
Hardness testing ble of bearing and transferring abrasion effect. Thus, the enhanced properties of the composites could be
Thermal property obtained.
Wear resistance Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction temperature and low CTE [8]. The softening behavior of metallic al-
loys and composites has been studied by Quan et al. [15], Peng
Aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) reinforced with whiskers et al. [16] and Wu et al. [17]. With increasing temperature and con-
are of interest in aerospace and automobile industries due to the stant load, most metallic materials usually start to deform at a high
combination of excellent properties of Al matrix and the whiskers, strain rate at a certain temperature that is normally referred to as
such as high specific strength and stiffness, good wear resistance, the softening temperature and it is related to the CTE of metal ma-
elevated temperature stability, and low cost of production [1–3]. trix [16]. The CTE of pure Al is 23.6  106/ °C [18], much larger
Extensive research has been carried out on AMCs to improve their than the CTE of steel (10–12  106/ °C) and copper (18  106/
mechanical, thermal and tribological properties due to the promis- °C) in the temperature range from 0 to 300 °C, which limits the
ing applications in weight saving and energy conservation [4,5]. application of Al at elevated temperatures [19]. Silicon carbide
Various ceramics and intermetallics have been used as reinforcing whiskers are widely used to reinforce Al composites because of
materials to improve aluminum matrix properties such as Ni3Al their high strength, low CTE and excellent wear resistance
[5], TiB2 [6], Al18B4O33 whiskers [7] and SiC [8,9]. Among these [20,21]. However, the relative high cost of SiC whiskers has pre-
compounds, the MgAl2O4 spinel whisker with a melting point of vented extensive applications of these composites. The use of
2315 °C is a novel reinforcement for AMCs due to a series of unique in situ generated MgAl2O4 spinel whiskers by a one-step synthesis
properties such as high Young’s modulus and strength, low ther- method without extra additives to reinforce Al matrix could reduce
mal expansion coefficient (CTE) [10]. The lattice mismatch of the the cost of Al matrix composites. Since the CTE of MgAl2O4 spinel is
plane (1 0 0)MgAl2O4/(1 0 0)Al is only 0.25%, which improves the wet- only 9  106/ °C and Mohs Hardness is 8 [22], MgAl2O4 spinel
tability between MgAl2O4 whisker and aluminum matrix [11]. whiskers distributed in aluminum matrix are expected to reduce
However, the AMCs with MgAl2O4 spinel whisker reinforcement the CTE and enhance the wear resistance of aluminum composites
have been only partially studied [12–14]. [23]. Therefore, MgAl2O4 spinel whiskers could be very promising
On the other hand, it is essential for high-performance struc- in improving the thermal stability and wear resistance of Al matrix
tural materials to have good thermal stability and wear resistance. composites.
An improved thermal stability usually includes a high softening In our previous work [24], aluminum composites with a homo-
geneous whisker dispersion in the matrix were successfully fabri-
cated, in which MgAl2O4 spinel whisker was in situ generated. In
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 22 27891371. this study, a range of composites with different MgAl2O4 whisker
E-mail address: [email protected] (N. Zhao). content were hot extruded after 500 °C pretreatment to form

0261-3069/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2012.11.022
 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730 725

composite rod with a relative higher density closer to theoretical

values. The hardness, thermal behavior at elevated temperatures
and wear resistance were investigated through Vickers micro-
hardness tests, CTE measurements and abrasive wear tests, respec-
tively. The mechanism of the reinforcement effect of in situ gener-
ated MgAl2O4 spinel whisker is also discussed.

2. Experimental procedures

The MgAl2O4/Al composite was fabricated through powder met-

allurgy as described elsewhere [24]. Aluminum powder (N99% pur-
ity, purchased from Tianjin Jinke Co., Ltd.), magnesium powders
(N99% purity, purchased from Tianjin Jinke Co., Ltd.), boric acid
(N99% purity, purchased from Tianjin Weichen Co., Ltd.) were used
as raw materials. The aluminum and magnesium powders have a
particle size ranging from 20 to 30 lm. The boric acid acted as flux
for sintering. The Mg powder, boric acid powder, and Al powder
were mixed in a mass ratio of 2:2:9. A high-energy milling pre- Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the wear test couples (in mm): ‘‘B’’ stands for the
treatment was performed in a stainless steel grinding chamber width of the block sample and ‘‘L’’ stands for the length of the wear groove.

for 12 h with the ball-to-powder weight ratio of 20:1 at a speed  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi

of 700 rpm. After that, different amount of pure Al powder was 1
V ¼ B R2 sin ðL=2RÞ  L=2 ðR2  L2 =4Þ ð1Þ
added into the powder and mixed thoroughly in a mortar to con-
trol the content of whiskers generated during sintering with the
where V is volume loss, B is the width of the block sample, R is the
range of 1 wt%  15 wt%. The mixed powders were then com-
radius of the rotating ring, L is the length of the wear groove, which
pressed into a cylinder with 20 mm in diameter and 15–20 mm
was measured by microscopic distance gauge. The worn samples
long under a pressure of 600 MPa. Subsequently, the obtained
were examined by SEM to recognize wear mechanisms [6].
compact was put into a tube furnace and sintered in argon atmo-
sphere at 800 °C for 1 h. Thus, the MgAl2O4 whiskers were gener-
ated in the matrix. Finally, in order to increase density and 3. Results and discussion
strength of the composites, the bulk was hot-extruded in a steel
die at 500 °C with an extrusion ratio of 16:1 to produce composite 3.1. Microstructure and density of the composite
rods with 5 mm in diameter.
The microstructure of the composite with 7 wt% MgAl2O4 whis- The MgAl2O4 spinel whisker reinforced Al composites were ob-
ker was observed with a JEOL S4800 scanning electron microscope tained through the sintering and hot extrusion processes as dem-
(SEM) and Olympus BX51M metalloscope. The X-ray diffraction onstrated previously [24]. XRD pattern of the extruded composite
(XRD) pattern of the sample was obtained on a Rigaku D/max with 7 wt% MgAl2O4 whisker is shown in Fig. 2. Only two phases
2500 V/pc automated X-ray diffractometer with Cu Ka radiation. were detected, aluminum and MgAl2O4 spinel, proving that the
The properties of the produced composites with whisker contents in situ generated product is single pure MgAl2O4 spinel whiskers
ranging from 1 wt% to 15 wt% were studied. The densities were with no by-products. According to the standard spectra of the
determined using Archimedes’ principle according to ASTM: MgAl2O4 spinel and the diffraction peaks in the pattern, the whis-
B962-08 and the theoretical densities were calculated using the kers mainly grows along (3 1 1), (4 0 0) and (4 4 0) crystal plane.
rule of mixture [25]. The rods were cut and ground to produce Fig. 3a shows the typical morphology of MgAl2O4 spinel whisker
specimens with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 7.5 mm for with a regular hexagonal cross-section grown in the matrix at
Vickers micro-hardness. The hardness was evaluated by using dia- 800 °C, which also indicates that the MgAl2O4 whisker is grown
mond indenter with loading weight of 2.0  102 kg for 5 s holding in a single-crystalline structure, in accordance with the XRD anal-
time in a MH-6 Vickers hardness tester. The hardness values re- ysis. The microstructure of the composite sintered at 800 °C shown
ported are for an average of 10 measurements. Coefficient of ther- in Fig. 3b shows that the in situ generated whiskers are dispersed
mal expansion (CTE) was measured in a DIL 402C thermal uniformly in the matrix and form a continuous network structure.
dilatometer. The cylinder specimens with a diameter of 5 mm It can also be seen from the two pictures that he length-diameter
and a length of 20 mm were heated from 0 to 300 °C at a rate of
5 °C/min in an argon atmosphere.
The abrasive wear tests were performed according to ASTM:
G77-05(2010). The sample size for wear test is 7  7  25 mm3.
The wear test couple is shown in Fig. 1. The rotating ring is made
of GCr15 bearing steel with hardness of 60 HRC. The speed of rotat-
ing ring is 200 rpm. Both surfaces of the sample and the counter
material were sequentially ground with 320, 600, 800, 1200, and
2000 grit abrasive paper before testing. The wear tests were carried
out under oil abrasion and dry grinding conditions separately. The
load under oil abrasion condition is 200 N with a dripping rate of
10 drop/min. Under dry grinding condition, the test time and the
load ranges from 30 to 180 min and from 50 to 250 N, respectively,
in order to investigate the relationship of wear loss volume with
sliding distance and load. The wear volume loss of the samples
could be determined through the following equation [26]
Fig. 2. XRD pattern of the cross section of the extruded composite.
726 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730

Fig. 3. Microstructures of the MgAl2O4 spinel whisker reinforced Al composites: SEM images of (a) the whiskers, (b) insides of the sintered composite, (c) the combination of
whiskers with matrix, (d) the whiskers pushed into the Al matrix, (e) the cross section of the extruded composite, and (f) the longitudinal section of the extruded composite.

ratio of the whiskers is about 20:1  15:1 with a diameter ranging

from 500 nm  1.5 lm and a length of 10–20 lm. The in situ
grown MgAl2O4 whiskers exhibit a good combination with Al ma-
trix as shown in Fig. 3c and d, which significantly improved the
homogeneity and binding ability of whiskers with matrix com-
pared with traditional ex situ methods. After hot extrusion, the
voids in the composites (Fig. 3b) vanish, as shown in Fig. 3e, and
as a result, higher density could be obtained. The whiskers ob-
served in the longitudinal section of the extruded composite with
the metalloscope displayed in Fig. 3f indicate that most of the
whiskers tend to line up along with the extrusion direction, which
would provide a possible explanation of the anisotropic properties
of the hot extruded samples which have been reported elsewhere
[24]. Besides, most of the whiskers were pushed into the matrix
after hot extrusion and combined with neighboring Al particles to-
gether like a bridge (Fig. 3d), and thus, the reinforcement effect of Fig. 4. Effect of MgAl2O4 whisker contents on the density of composite.
MgAl2O4 spinel whisker on the Al matrix is enhanced.
Since the density of MgAl2O4 spinel (3.54 g/cm3) [4] is higher Similarly, the matrix shrinkage during cooling is also impeded. The
than that of pure Al (2.7 g/cm3), the theoretical density of the com- preheating and hot extrusion process forces the Al matrix to flow
posites increases with increasing whisker content, as shown in into the voids compensating the less dense regions that were left
Fig. 4. The densities before and after hot extrusion are obviously after the sintering process. Therefore, the density of as-extruded
different, consistent with the observation of the SEM images. The composites increases to about 99% of the theoretical value and
density of the as-sintered compacts is much lower than the theo- tends to rise with an increasing content of whiskers.
retical value, mainly due to the formation of a number of voids
and sparse regions resulting from the consumption of Al matrix 3.2. Vickers micro-hardness test and softening temperature
and Mg powder during sintering reaction. On the other hand, the
network structure of the generated MgAl2O4 whiskers prevents The hardness of the composites rises with an increasing content
the flow of metal and expansion of Al matrix at high temperatures. of MgAl2O4 whisker, as shown in Fig. 5. Compared to the Al matrix,
 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730 727

different temperatures for 1 h and slowly cooled to room temper-

ature. The residual hardness was measured to evaluate the soften-
ing temperature of the composites, and the results are shown in
Fig. 6. There is a similar variation tendency among the composites
with different whisker contents that the hardness decreases grad-
ually with a rising annealing temperature. After annealing at
200 °C and 300 °C, the hardness of the composites can still retain
90% of the original value. With the temperature increasing to
400 °C, there is a sharp decline of the residual hardness. The hard-
ness of the composites with whisker contents of 3%, 5%, and 7% de-
creases to 80% of the original hardness, while the hardness of the
composites with 10% and 15% whisker contents can retain 85% of
the original value. Therefore, the softening temperature of the
composites can reach as high as 400 °C.
Al matrix is softened mainly because of the recovery and recrys-
tallization phenomenon during annealing process [28]. The sup-
Fig. 5. Effect of MgAl2O4 whisker contents on the hardness of composite.
pression of grain growth can effectively solve the softening
problems of the composites. In the MgAl2O4 whisker reinforced
Al composite, the evenly distributed whiskers which are harder
and have higher melting point (over 2100 °C) than pure aluminum,
can form a reticular structure to pin the Al grain boundaries. As a
result, grain growth is suppressed and hence the softening of ma-
trix can be prevented correspondingly [29].

3.3. Coefficient of thermal expansion

Fig. 7a shows a temperature-length change (TLC) curve of the

composites with whisker content of 5%, 7%, 10% and 15%, and also
a 5% Mg/Al alloy for comparison. The CTE values of the composites
with different whisker content at the temperature from 95 to
300 °C can be calculated by differentiating the TLC curves. The
change of CTE with temperature is shown in Fig. 7b. The length
of all samples rises smoothly with increase of temperature. The
TLC curves of 5% Mg/Al alloy and composites with whisker content
Fig. 6. Effect of the annealing temperature on the hardness of the MgAl2O4 whisker of 5% and 7% are closer to each other, especially at higher temper-
reinforced Al composite with different whisker contents.
atures (i.e. 250 to 300 °C), which means that with lower whisker
content, there is no obvious influence on the improvement of the
the generated whisker reinforcement is a kind of ceramic phase thermal stability of the composites. As the content of the whisker
with high hardness, and thus it can bear and transfer the extrinsic gets higher, an obvious decline of the CTE can be observed as
loads in the matrix. As a result, a higher content of MgAl2O4 whis- shown in Fig. 7b. Thus, the in situ synthesized MgAl2O4 whisker
kers with a homogeneous distribution in the Al matrix results in a reinforcements in Al matrix are able to reduce the longitudinal
higher hardness of the composites. strain of the composites and stabilize the composites at higher
Softening temperature is an important index for the hardness temperatures. When whisker content is 15%, the CTE of the com-
and strength of materials in high temperature applications and is posite (22  106/ °C, at 300 °C) is the lowest among the specimens
usually defined as the highest annealing temperature at which investigated.
the composites are annealed for 1 h while the hardness can still The mechanism of the influence of the MgAl2O4 whiskers on the
keep 80% of the original hardness at room temperature [27]. The CTE of the composites can be explained as illustrated in Fig. 8.
as-extruded samples with different whisker content were kept at When the composite is heated, the whisker bears a tensile stress,

Fig. 7. The relative length (a) and CTE (b) of the Al composites with different whisker contents changing with temperature.
728 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730

while the matrix alloy bears a compressive stress owing to the CTE 3.4. Abrasive wear test
difference between these two components [8]. When the whisker
content is relatively low, the sparsely distributed reinforcements The curves of wear groove length of composites with different
cannot effectively form the network structure. As a result, the pro- whisker content under dry grinding with 50 N load and oil abra-
hibition effect of the whiskers on the thermal expansion of the sion with 200 N load are displayed in Fig. 9a. The length of the
composites is not obvious. With the increase of whisker content, wear groove decreases with the increase of MgAl2O4 whisker con-
there will be enough whiskers generated and connected with each tent. When the whisker content is 15%, the abrasion loss reaches
other, and at a high content a reticular structure of the whiskers is the least with the length of the wear groove 60% and 55% of that
formed to fix the Al matrix firmly. Therefore, the matrix expansion of the pure aluminum sample under oil and dry conditions, respec-
can be strongly restrained [29]. The generation of whiskers in the tively. Thus, compared with pure Al sample, in situ generated
matrix is beneficial in stabilizing the size of the composites and MgAl2O4 whisker reinforced composites have an improved wear
reducing the CTE of pure Al and its alloys. resistance. During wear process, part of the Al sample was torn into

Fig. 8. (a) When whisker content is low, thermal expansion of the matrix is unrestrained and (b) as whisker content increases, the reticular structure formed by whiskers
prevents the matrix from expansion.

Fig. 9. (a) Wear groove length curves of the composites with different whisker content, (b) wear loss curves of the composites with different sliding distance and (c) Wear loss
curves of the composites under different wear loads.
 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730 729

Fig. 10. SEM images of the composites after 30 min (a) and 120 min (b) wear test under dry condition and 50 N load, (c) the wear dust of the composites and (d) magnified
wear particles in (c).

pieces due to the softening of pure aluminum caused by frictional The SEM observation of the worn surface of composites with
heat [30]. However, in the composites with in situ grown whiskers, 10% whisker content (Fig. 10) partially substantiates the above dis-
the stiff reinforcement can play its role effectively in bearing load cussion. It is quite clear that when the testing time is 30 min, micro
and acting as the shear stress strong point during wear test furrows start to appear on the surface and the matrix is slightly
process. damaged, suggesting that the overall strength of the composites
Fig. 9b shows the relationship between the volume of wear loss is still good since MgAl2O4 whiskers can keep the soft matrix in ori-
and sliding distance in the composites with 10% and 15% whisker ginal place. While when abrasion time reaches 120 min (Fig. 10b),
content. The load was 50 N under dry grinding condition. The vol- due to the frictional heating [30,31], some of the regions got worn
ume of wear loss increases with a growing sliding distance in both down to small particles, which is shown in Fig. 10c. It can be seen
samples. Moreover, when the sliding distance is longer than that in the collected wear dust, most of the wear particles are quite
4000 m, the increasing tendency of the wear loss reduces. Simi- small with a diameter ranging from 1 to 2 lm. The magnified im-
larly, in Fig. 9c, the changing curves of the wear loss volume with age in Fig. 10d indicates that most of those particles were from the
different wear load were displayed in the graph. The test time is soft Al matrix and kneaded into tiny spheres during wear process,
30 min under dry condition. And the wear loss increased gradually which is known as abrasive wear. This is different from the sticking
with an increasing wear load in both samples. While when the load abrasion of pure Al samples with several pieces torn down sticking
gets higher, the increasing tendency starts to drop down. During to the rotating ring. Despite of this, the rest of the matrix still main-
the wear test process, the length of the wear groove gets larger tains a relative good integrity due to the whiskers’ pinning and fix-
and as a result, the contact area between the sample and the coun- ation effects, continuing to bear the load of the grinding friction
ter part increases. Thus, more hard whiskers will be exposed and ring.
sustain the wear load, leading to a decrease in the wear tendency
of the samples. 4. Conclusions
In addition, in Fig. 9b and c, the volume of wear loss of the sam-
ple with 15% whisker content is always less than that of the sample In summary, in situ synthesized MgAl2O4 spinel whiskers rein-
with 10% whisker content, indicating a significant wear resistance forced Al composites were prepared by powder metallurgy fol-
improvement for the sample with higher whisker content. In com- lowed by hot-extrusion. It was found that hot extrusion could
posites with higher whisker content, more whiskers will take the significantly enhance the density of the sintered composites. The
place of soft Al matrix to withstand wearing load instead. More- in situ synthesized MgAl2O4 whiskers are evenly dispersed in Al
over, the whisker-formed network structure is more capable of matrix and form a firm reticular structure to fix the Al matrix. As
bearing and transferring abrasion effect, which means a higher a result, the hardness of the composites increases with an increas-
abrasive resistance strength and better wear capacity [6]. On the ing content of MgAl2O4 whisker, and the softening temperature of
other hand, the well combination between MgAl2O4 and Al matrix the composites increases to as high as 400 °C. At the same time, the
also guarantees that the matrix can be fixed firmly by whiskers composites with MgAl2O4 whiskers reinforced can exhibit a better
when subjected to continuing tangential force. Furthermore, in thermal stability and lower thermal expansion coefficient than alu-
composites with higher whisker content, the distance between minum alloys. Besides, in composites with higher whiskers con-
whiskers decreases. As a result, the average size of exposed Al ma- tent, the whisker-formed network structure is more capable of
trix surface becomes smaller, which prevents the matrix from bearing and transferring abrasion effect, preventing the matrix
being torn during the wearing process. Thus, the wear resistance from being torn during the wearing process, which reflects an
is significantly enhanced [7]. overall enhancement of wear resistance.
730 Y. Zhou et al. / Materials and Design 46 (2013) 724–730

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