Abstract
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted enormous attention from many researchers of material science, and their physical properties have been intensively clarified. The next step of carbon nanotube research should be development of high performance CNT materials with industrial applications. Production of CNT composites represents one of great targets for the application. In this study, alumina has been selected as the matrix of CNT composites because of its low cost and high performance. The final goal is to develop a design-fabrication-evaluation methodology for CNT ceramic matrix composites and to produce high performance composites on the basis of the method to be developed. MWCNT/alumina composites were prepared by a simple mechanical mixing method followed by pressureless sintering. The effects of MWCNT addition on mechanical, tribological and electromagnetic-wave absorption properties of the pressureless sintered-MWCNT/alumina composites will be discussed.
