Nanocomposites and nanomaterials

Fabrication of Cu-based-CNT composites via electroplating and powder metallurgy techniques.
I. Shtablavyi1, N. Popilovskyi1, Yu. Kulyk1, R. Serkiz2, B. Tsizh3,4, S. Mudry1
1 Metal Physics Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Kyrylo i Mephodiy 8, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine
E-mail: nazar.popilovskii@lnu.edu.ua
2Solid State Physics Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine
3 Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, 30 Chodkiewicza, Bydgoszcz, 85-064, Poland
4 Stepan Gzhytskyi National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies Lviv, 50 Pekarska, Lviv, 79010, Ukraine 

The creation of structural materials that would have satisfactory mechanical properties, and in particular at the same time high values of plasticity and strength, is always an urgent problem of modern materials science. The solution to this problem is possible by creating composite materials in which the matrix is a plastic metal with a high-strength filler. As a filler, the use of carbon nanotubes is promising.
It is known that when nanotubes are introduced into the metal, there are problems which are related with wetting the nanotubes by metal and dispersing them in the matrix. To solve these problems, several methods have been developed to obtain high-quality metal composites filled with carbon nanotubes. However, all of them do not allow achieving the values of mechanical properties provided by theory, so they need further improvement.
In this regard, the structure, morphology and microhardness of copper-based composites with carbon nanotubes were studied in this work. In order to obtain high-quality composites, the method of coating carbon nanotubes with metals was developed and the microstructure and results of X-ray structural studies of copper-coated nanotubes were presented.