MATERIALS

SCIENCE &
ENGINEERING
ELSEVIER

Materials Scienceand EngineeringA219 (1996) 229-231

Letter

Nanometric Si3N 4 particulate-reinforced aluminum composite

Z.Y. Ma ~,b,*, Y.L. Lia, Y. LiangL F. Zheng a, J. BP, S.C. Tjong b
aInstitute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110015, People's Republic of China
bDepartment of Pt,ysics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Received 23 April 1996; revised 3 July 1996

Abstract

The nanometric Si3N4particulate-reinforced aluminum composite was fabricated by a powder metallurgy technique. The tensile
properties of the composite were tested, and the polished composite and the tensile fracture surface were observed. The
lvol.%Si3N4 (15 nm)/Al composite exhibited a strength comparable to that of the 15vol.%SiCp (3.5 gm)/A1 composite.
Keywords: Composite; Si3N4;Particulate; Nanometer

1. Introduction
Metal matrix composites possess the metallic properties of ductility, toughness and environmental resistance
in combination with the ceramic properties of high
strength and high modulus. They therefore offer several
advantages in applications where high strength, high
modulus and good conductivities are desirable.
Of the discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composites, SiC particulate-reinforced aluminum, matrix
(SiCp/A1) composites have received much attention for
their good properties and low cost. The widely used
commercial SiC particulates generally have a size ranging from a few micrometers to several hundred micrometers. Some investigations have indicated that the
strength of the SiCp/A1 composites tends to increase
with decreasing particulate sizes [1-3].
Nanometric particulates have attracted considerable
attention for their special properties. Nanometric SiC,
Si3N4, S i - N - C (10-20 am) powders have been synthesized previously by means of laser-induced gas phase
reactions [4,5]. The laser-synthesized nanometric
ceramic powders exhibit many attractive properties,

* Corresponding author. Department of Physics and Materials

Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue,
Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Copyright 1996 PuNished by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved
PII S0921-5093(96) 10444-5

such as small size ( < 50 am), high purity, less agglomeration and narrow size distribution. They may become
a promising reinforcing component for metal matrix
composites. It has been reported that an improvement
in the mechanical performance of the ceramics can be
achieved by the incorporation of nanometric particulates [6]. The nano-nano composite ceramics also exhibited superplastic behavior at high temperature [7].
However, to our knowledge, no work has been reported
in literature on the fabrication of the nanometric particulate-reinforced aluminum matrix composites to date.
In the present paper, the nanometric SisN4 particulatereinforced alumimtm composite was fabricated by a
powder metallurgy (PM) technique. The aim of this
work is to study the applicability of nanometric particulates as a reinforcement in metal matrix composites
and to investigate whether an improvement in the properties of the composites can be achieved by the incorporation of such particulates.

2. Experimental procedure
Atomized aluminum (99.6% pure) powder with an
average size of 20 gm was employed as the matrix.
Nanometric amorphous Si3N4 powders with a mean
size of 15 rim (Fig. 1), synthdsized by laser-induced gas
phase reactions at the Institute of Metal Research,

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Z. I1. Ma et aL/ Materials Science and Engineering A219 (1996) 229-231

Table 1
Tensile properties of composites
Materials

UTS (MPa)

lvol.%SisN4 (15 nm)/Ai 180.0

A1
102.6
15vol.%SiCp (3.5 gm)/ 176.1
AI

YS (MPa)

Et, (%)

143.7
67.8
94.3

17.4
14.5

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1. TEM image of nanometric Si3~q"4 particulates.

Chinese Academy of Science [4], were adopted as

the reinforcement. The composites with 1 vol.%
Si3N4 particulates were fabricated by a PM technique
which involved mixing the SisN4 particulates with
aluminum powders, hot pressing in vacuum at
600C, and then hot extrusion at 420C at an extrusion ratio of 20:1. The pure aluminum specimen was also fabricated under the same processing
condition.
The metallographic observations were carried
out on the mechanically polished specimens. The
tensile specimens with a gauge diameter of 4 mm
and a gauge length of 10 mm were machined
from the extruded rods and they were tested at a
strain rate of 8.33 10 -4 s - 1 The fracture surfaces
were observed in a scanning electron microscope
(SEM).

Fig. 2. Metallograph of SisN4/A1composite.

Fig. 2 shows the optical micrograph of the

lvol.%SisN4 (15 nm)/A1 composite. It is apparent that
the microstructure of the composite is characterized by
grey-white matrix with a few black particulates. The
SisN4 particulates cannot be resolved under the optical
microscope due to their extremely small sizes (15 nm).
Thus, black particulates are associated with the agglomeration of SisN 4 particulates, indicating that the
nanometric particulates are not completely dispersed,
though the starting particulates indicate absence of
hard agglomeration.
The tensile properties of the lvol.%SisN4 (15 nm)/A1
composite and pure aluminum are shown in Table 1.
The properties of 15vol.%SiCp (3.5 tam)/A1 composite
fabricated by the PM technique are also listed for
purposes of comparison. The lvol.%SisN4 (15 nm)/A1
composite exhibits a tensile strength of 180.0 MPa and
a yield strength of 143.7 MPa; these values are much
higher than those of the monolithic aluminum. These
results indicate that nanometric SisN4 particulate appears to exhibit a significant reinforcing effect in the
aluminum matrix. Furthermore, Table 1 also reveals
that the tensile strength of the lvol.%SisN4 (15 nm)/A1
composite is comparable to that of the 15vol.%SiCp
(3.5 l~m)/A1 composite, and that the yield strength of
the former is much higher than that of the latter. Data
on the properties of micrometric SisN4 particulate-reinforced pure aluminum composite are lacking in the
literature, and SiC is generally thought the best reinforcement for aluminum matrix composites. Therefore,
the above comparison indicates that the strengthening
effect of the lvol.% nanometric SisN4 particulates exceeds that of the 15voi.% micrometric SiC particulates.
In addition, the ductility of the SisN4/A1 composite is
considerably higher than that of the SiCp/A1 composite.
The increase in mechanical performance of the
lvol.%Si3Ng/A1 composite is associated with the reduced sizes of the reinforcement employed. According
to the literature [8], the yield strength of the particulate
composites is basically related to the particulate-dislocation interaction by means of the Orowan bowing
mechanism [9],

z.Y. Ma et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A219 (I996) 229-231

Fig. 3. SEM image of tensile fracture surface of Si3NJA1 composite.

T
T = rs - bL/e

(1)

where ~ is shear yield strength, zs is the threshold shear

stress associated with Orowan bowing, b is the Burgers
vector, T is the line tension of dislocation and L is the
mean interparticle distance. The L can be calculated
from

L=

where V is the volume fraction of the particulates and

dm is the mean particulate diameter. For the SiCp/A1
composites, the mean interparticle spacing, L, is calculated to be 5.309 gm. For the Si3N4/A1 composite, if it
is supposed that the nanometric particulates are well
dispersed in the aluminum matrix, then the mean interparticle spacing, L, is calculated to be 0.056 gm. Thus,
the mean interparticle distance in the SiCp/AI composite is approximately 94.6 times larger than that in
the Si3N4/AI composite. According to Eq. (1), the
Si3Na/A1 composite would exhibit a higher yield
strength. However, because of the agglomeration of the
nanometric Si3N4 particulates in the aluminum matrix,
the actual mean interparticle spacing is larger than
0.056 ~tm. Besides, the agglomeration of the nanometric
Si3N 4 particulates in the aluminum matrix would degrade the properties of the composites. Therefore, if the
nanometric Si3N4 particulates are well dispersed in the
aluminium matrix, it is expected that the properties of
Si3N4/AI composite can be significantly improved. As
mentioned above, the nanometric Si3N4 particulates
cannot be resolved properly in the optical microscope.
One possibility exists that the ceramic-rich regions
could be considered as voids filled with lose particulate

231

due to the agglomeration of the Si3N4 particulates. In

this case, the strengthening may result from void
strengthening rather than composite strengthening.
More thorough work is needed to elucidate this problem. In addition, further work should be done on the
powder mixing steps to ensure well dispersed Si3N4
particulates in the matrix, and a transmission electron
microscopy investigation is also required to characterize
the distribution of the nanometric Si3N4 particulates in
the matrix and the interface between nanometric particulate and matrix.
SEM observations indicate that the Si3N4/A1 composite exhibits the mixed morphologies of dimple and
cleavage, which are typical fracture morphologies of the
composites (Fig. 3). Moreover, there exist very fine
dimples on the fracture surfaces of the composite in
addition to the large dimples, which might result from
the agglomeration of Si3N4 particulates.

4. Conclusions

(1) Nanometric Si3N4 particulate-reinforced aluminum composite was fabricated by a PM technique.

(2) The lvol.%Si3Ne (10 nm)/A1 composite has a
tensile strength comparable to that of the 15vol.%SiCp
(3.5 gm)/A1 composite, but the yield strength and ductility of Si3N4/A1 composite are higher than those of the
SiC/A1 composite.

References

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