ALUMINUM – CARBON NANOFIBERS COMPOSITE COATING PRODUCED BY COLD SPRAYING

Carbon nanofiber (CNF) / aluminum hybrid material was prepared by direct synthesis of CNFs on the surface of aluminum powder particles in a fluidized bed reactor using acetylene and hydrogen at the temperature of 550 oC. This allowed to achieve a good dispersion of CNFs in an aluminum matrix with the CNF content up to 2%. The possibility for producing coatings based on aluminum, reinforced by carbon nanostructures in cold gas-dynamic spraying was shown. The Al-CNFs coatings showed about a 60% increase in the hardness compared with pure Al coatings.