Impact of Cu-hBN on thermal stability
and electrical resistivity of AA7050 by
Powder Metallurgy Process
Michael Sukham
Dr.V. Umasankar
School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University-Chennai.
michael.sukham2015@vit.ac.in, umasankar.v@vit.ac.in
ABSTRACT
Synthesis of Aluminium alloy as a Matrix
with hBN as a reinforcement material composite
has been carried out using Powder Metallurgy
technique. AA7050 and hBN which is in powder
formed are mixed. After this, it is ball milled to
make it fined in grain size and fined powder is
compacted at the pressure of 450MPa. This
compacted sample is finally sintered in muffle
furnace. The sintered sample of composite is
further carried out to observe the
Microstructure of it using Optical Microscope.
The electrical conductivity test and thermal
gravimetric analysis (TGA) is performed to
observe the change in conductivity and thermal
stability due to 5%wt of hBN and 5%wt of
coated hBN as reinforcement in the Composite.
Keywords: Muffle furnace Sintering, Ball
milling, Conductivity, Thermal stability,
Aluminium alloys-hBN composites
I. INTRODUCTION
The need for lightweight, high strength materials
has been recognized since the invention of the
airplane. Due to scarcity of fuel is rising; the need
of lighter materials is also rising to fulfill the
demand of lower fuel consuming automobiles.
Aluminium is third most abundant element in earth
crust and has application in automobile, aerospace
industries due to its light weight, high specific
strength, good machinability, and good cast ability.
However aluminium has less melting point of
around 6000 C which renders it useless for various
purposes despite its light weight advantage. The
inability of aluminium and alloys in providing
thermal stability and electrical resistivity to a
structure has led to the development of metal
matrix composites (MMCs). In this MMC, the
thermal and electrical conductivity will be provided
by the reinforcement material that is either a ceramic
or high stiffness metal based particulate or fiber.
Aluminium is lightweight, non sparking, non magnetic.
It possesses excellent cast ability, high damping
capacity, good electromagnetic shielding, most easily
machinable of all structural metals and less energy
requirement in the production as compared to
magnesium. During past decades, ceramic fiber,
whiskers and nano particles like SiC, Al2O3, CNTs,
hBN have been extensively used as reinforcement to
increase the strength and thermal stability of
aluminium and its alloys. h-BN has excellent
chemical and thermal stability, high corrosion
resistance and lower dielectric constant. Due to its less
density, by adding it into Aluminium further weight
reduction can be done which is required to be a good
structural material. Due to low elastic modulus
and poor corrosion resistance of the Magnesium
along with low thermal stability, currently Aluminium
alloys/ composites are more preferred as structural
members. Commercial aluminium has
approximately one third weight of iron, steel and
copper. The primary objective of the work is to make
AA7050 MMC by powder metallurgy. In this study,
Aa7050-5hBN%wt was compared with AA7050-
10hBN%wt and observed whether the thermal and
electrical properties were improved.
II.EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
A.Processing
AA7050 and hBN powders were used to prepare
samples with compositions AA7050/5%wt hBN and
AA7050/10%wt hBN by powder metallurgy
processing. The powder was quantified using
volume of die and the mass of powder required is
calculated. The mixture is then carried for ball
milling to reduce coarse and for uniform mixing.
The ball milling was done with ball to powder
ratio of 4:1. The ball drum was rotated at 250 rpm
for 15 min using Balls made of Tungsten Carbide.
Ball milling parameters for all the samples were
 same. This fined powder was then compacted by
UTM compacting machine at the pressure of
450MPa to a size of billet 20mm diameter and 10
mm length. Zinc Stearate was used as a die
lubricant in compaction. The lubricating medium
used was ethanol. The compacted billet is then
sintered in muffle furnace at the temperature of
500°C for 1.5 hour and allowed to cool in furnace
for 30 min. Then this sample was taken out of the
furnace and cooled in atmosphere. The sintered
samples are shown in the Fig. 2 (a), (b) and (C)
.
Table 1: Chemical composition of AA7050 (mass
fraction, %)
________________________________________
Zn Mg Cu Zr Fe Si Mn Cr Ti Al
5.93 2.23 2.16 0.11 0.068 0.019 <0.01 <0.01 0.02 Bal.
Fig. 1 Block diagram showing the process of
preparation of AA7050/hBN composite
B. Micro-structural characterization
The sintered samples were polished using 1/0,
2/0, 3/0 and 4/0 emery sheets and etched with
the help of 11.11 %v/v HF solution with
distilled water. These fine polished samples were
observed by Optical microscope with
magnification of 200X.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2 Sintered samples of (a) AA7050, (b)
AA7050-5%wt hBN and (c) AA7050-5%wt Cu-
hBN
C. Electrical conductivity
Electrical conductivity in metal matrix composites is
hindered mostly by porosity and poor sintering which
will result in air pockets being formed inside the
sample resulting in lesser conductivity. Conductivity
test was carried out with thin samples taken. A 6485
Picometer with a voltage range of 0.001V to 20V was
used for measuring the conductivity of the sample.The
samples were connected to the positive and negative
terminal of the machine and respective conductivity
were measured for each sample.
D. Thermal conductivity
Thermal conductivity of aluminium is as low as
~600OC rendering it useless for many industrial
purposes and also for aeronautical applications.
However, h-BN being a reinforcement material with a
melting point of ~21000C will increase the thermal
stability of AA7050 in the sample. Thermo-
Gravimetric analysis is used for testing the thermal
stability of the sample with the following parameters:
Maximum temperature 800oC
Heating Rate 20oC/min
Crucible Al2O3
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Micro-structure
The O p t i c a l m i c r o -images o f AA7050, AA7050-
5% wt hBN and AA7050-5%wt coated hBN are
shown in Fig.3 (a), (b) and (c). The presence of hBN
can be found in the microstructure of AA7050/hBN
shown in Fig. 3(b). Theoretical density of sintered
MMC is calculated by rule of mixture of the
composite is tabulated in table 2. H-BN is seen as
cloudy particles in the optical micro-structure image.
The image also shows us that there is no uniform
sintering in the sample which is because h-BN has
poor sinterability with aluminium due to its high
melting point as compared to aluminium.
Fig: Micro-structure of AA7050
 Fig: AA7050+5%hBN

Table2: AA7050+5%coated hBN

fig: Micro-structure of AA7050+5%h-BN
Voltage(V) Current(mA)
0.01 1.64
0.02 3.68
0.03 5.47
0.04 7.40
0.05 9.25
0.06 11.15
0.07 13.05
0.08 14.86
0.09 16.74
0.10 18.56

fig: Micro-structure of AA7050+5%Cu-

hBN

B. Electrical conductivity

Electrical conductivity of AA7050+5%hBN

was found to be more than the conductivity of
AA7050+5% coated hBN. However
conductivity of both the samples were less as
the sintering was not done properly. Porosity in
the sample is another reason as to why the
conductivity is very less compared to Finding the slope of the graph shows us the values of
conventional composites. conductivity of the samples. The sample with 5%
uncoated hBN had a conductivity of 1.297Ω -1
whereas the sample with 5% coated hBN had a
Table1: AA7050+5% hBN conductivity of 0.188 Ω-1. The readings show that
Voltage (V) Current(mA) conductivity of the sample deceases with the coated
0.002 0.863 version. This can be explained by the fact that copper
0.004 3.58 forms oxide layer which was not broken down due to
0.006 6.23 less time period of ball milling done for the coating.
0.008 8.58 Due to the less time period of ball milling the oxide
layers persisted which resulted in poor sinterability of
0.010 11.03
the coating. Also aluminium oxide layers would have
0.012 14.05 been present in the powder due to the same reasons.
0.014 16.62
0.016 19.03
IV.CONCLUSIONS

From the current study, it can be concluded that the

addition of hBN reduced the conductivity of AA7050
alloy. Also, it is challenging to sinter AA7050/hBN
composites due to higher melting point of hBN as
2600°C. Also the easy formation of oxide layers on the
coating materials further reduced the sinterability of
the sample. This results in poor sinterability and
bonding which result in the high brittleness of the
aluminium alloy. Therefore, further research is
needed to understand the mechanism of sintering of
AA7050/hBN composite system to improve their
mechanical properties.

V.ACKNWOLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful for the support given for

the work which was carried out at Materials science
Lab in VIT-Chennai. The ball milling was done at
Advanced Manufacturing lab under the permission
of SMBS department, VIT, Chennai.

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