Performance of Carbon Black Reinforced Aluminum Composites Fabricated by Accumulative Roll Bonding (ARB) under Preheated Conditions

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birjand University of Technology, Birjand, Iran

2 Centre for International Scientific Studies & Collaborations (CISSC), Ministry of Science, Research and Technology of Iran, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Materials Engineering, Birjand University of Technology, Birjand, Iran

4 Laboratory for Advanced Carbon Nanomaterials, Chemical Institute, Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya St. 18, Kazan 420008, Russian Federation

Abstract

In this study, carbon black (CB) was evaluated as a low-cost and economically efficient reinforcement for aluminum matrix composites fabricated by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) under preheated conditions at 380 °C. The mechanical behavior, microhardness, and electrical resistance of CB/Al sheets were systematically compared with unprocessed aluminum, cold and preheated-ARB aluminum, and graphene oxide reinforced composites (GO/Al). Cold ARB increased the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of aluminum from 136.9 MPa to 259.4 MPa after five passes, corresponding to an 89.5% improvement, while elongation decreased from 26.9% to 11.5%. Preheating enabled stable processing up to seven passes without edge cracking, although the UTS of unreinforced aluminum decreased to 189.9 MPa in the first pass due to thermal softening. Incorporation of CB in the first preheated ARB pass enhanced the UTS to 198.8 MPa, which is 4.7% higher than that of unreinforced preheated ARB aluminum and 45.2% higher than that of the initial aluminum, confirming the effectiveness of particulate strengthening. However, increasing cumulative strain to higher passes led to gradual degradation in strength and ductility, attributed to particle re-agglomeration. Notably, CB consistently improved microhardness, reaching a maximum increase of 12.3% at the third pass, which exceeded that of GO/Al composites. Electrical resistance was reduced by 20% in the first pass compared to unreinforced preheated ARB aluminum, while the difference between CB/Al and GO/Al remained below 10% across all processing passes. Overall, although GO/Al exhibits superior mechanical stability at higher strains, CB/Al provides comparable early-stage mechanical and electrical performance with higher local hardness and substantially lower material cost, highlighting carbon black as a promising reinforcement for cost-sensitive and scalable applications.

Keywords

References

[1] Trajano, A. A., de Oliveira, L. R., da Costa, M. E. L., da Costa, P. R., & dos Santos, R. F. (2024). Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) and cross accumulative roll bonding (CARB) in aluminum: A review. Materials Science and Technology, 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/02670836241303270
[2] Ramkumar, K., Senthil, P., Ananth, S., & Arul, K. (2024). Development of aluminum matrix composites through accumulative roll bonding: A review. Journal of Materials Science, 59(20), 8606-8649. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-09902-1
[3] Ebrahimi, M., & Wang, Q. (2022). Accumulative roll-bonding of aluminum alloys and composites: An overview of properties and performance. Journal of Materials Research and Technology, 19, 4381-4403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2022.06.045
[4] Dong, H., Chen, X., Li, Y., Zhang, Z., Wang, S., & Liu, J. (2025). Interface-dominated microstructure development and mechanical and electrical properties of Al/Cu multilayered composites prepared via multicomponent accumulative roll bonding. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 1017, 179149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2025.179149
[5] Dehghan, M., Hosseini, M., Ghasemi, H. M., & Poursalehi, R. (2020). Effect of inter-cycle heat treatment in accumulative roll-bonding (ARB) process on planar isotropy of mechanical properties of AA1050 sheets. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 30(9), 2381-2393. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1003-6326(20)65377-1
[6] Hausöl, T., Höppel, H. W., & Göken, M. (2010). Tailoring materials properties by accumulative roll bonding. Advanced Engineering Materials, 12(8), 740-746. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201000045
[7] Kang, H., Kim, J., & Lee, C. (2007). A combined texture and FEM study of strain states during roll-cladding of five-ply stainless steel/aluminum composites. Materials Science and Engineering: A, 452, 347-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2006.10.089
[8] Yazdani, A., & Salahinejad, E. (2011). Evolution of reinforcement distribution in Al–B₄C composites during accumulative roll bonding. Materials & Design, 32(6), 3137-3142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2011.02.017
[9] Yao, G., Wu, Y., Huang, J., & Zhang, L. (2016). Cu/C composites with a good combination of hardness and electrical conductivity fabricated from Cu and graphite by accumulative roll-bonding. Materials & Design, 110, 124-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.07.078
[10] Chen, Z. H., Zhao, X. D., Chen, D., & Li, X. B. (2021). GNPs/Al nanocomposites with high strength and ductility and electrical conductivity fabricated by accumulative roll-compositing. Rare Metals, 40(9), 2593-2601. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01634-8
[11] Tiwari, J. K., Mandal, A., Sathish, N., Manna, R., & Chakraborty, M. (2020). Influence of graphene content on the mechanical properties of severely deformed graphene/aluminum composite. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 248, 122939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2020.122939
[12] Tiwari, J. K., Mandal, A., & Chakraborty, M. (2019). Evaluation of mechanical and thermal properties of bilayer graphene reinforced aluminum matrix composite produced by hot accumulative roll bonding. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 801, 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.06.128
[13] Tiwari, J. K., Mandal, A., Sathish, N., & Chakraborty, M. (2018). Graphene platelets reinforced aluminum matrix composite with enhanced strength by hot accumulative roll bonding. arXiv preprint, arXiv:1807.00198. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1807.00198
[14] Ghaderi, O., Zare, M., Niroumand, B., Church, B. C., & Rohatgi, P. K. (2024). Selected challenges in solidification processing of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) reinforced aluminum alloys composites. Frontiers in Materials, 11, 1363270. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2024.1363270
[15] Singh, V. P., Gupta, G. K., & Mishra, S. (2025). Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of multi-layered aluminum alloy 6061 processed by accumulative roll bonding. Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 34(8), 6828-6839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-024-09876-5
[16] Marcano, D. C., Kosynkin, D. V., Berlin, J. M., Sinitskii, A., Sun, Z., Slesarev, A., Alemany, L. B., Lu, W., & Tour, J. M. (2010). Improved synthesis of graphene oxide. ACS Nano, 4(8), 4806-4814. https://doi.org/10.1021/nn1006368
[17] Donnet, J. B. (2018). Carbon black: Science and technology (2nd ed.). Routledge.
[18] Raei, M., Toroghinejad, M. R., & Jamaati, R. (2011). Nano/ultrafine structured AA1100 by ARB process. Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 26(11), 1352-1356. https://doi.org/10.1080/10426914.2010.544820
[19] Eizadjou, M., Danesh Manesh, H., & Janghorban, K. (2009). Microstructure and mechanical properties of ultra-fine grains (UFGs) aluminum strips produced by ARB process. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 474(1-2), 406-415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2008.06.147
[20] Uppada, S., Sivakumar, K., & Rajesh, K. (2025). Effect of accumulative roll bonding on microstructure and mechanical behavior of Al6061. Journal of The Institution of Engineers (India): Series D, 106(1), 599-610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40033-024-00789-4
[21] Scharnweber, J., Zlateva, G., & Göken, M. (2010). Texture, microstructure and mechanical properties of ultrafine grained aluminum produced by accumulative roll bonding. Advanced Engineering Materials, 12(10), 989-994. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201000067
[22] Höppel, H. W., Hausöl, T., & Göken, M. (2020). The role of interfaces on the deformation mechanisms in bimodal Al laminates produced by accumulative roll bonding. Advanced Engineering Materials, 22(9), 2000145. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202000145
[23] Ranjan, R., & Bajpai, V. (2021). Graphene-based metal matrix nanocomposites: Recent development and challenges. Journal of Composite Materials, 55(17), 2369-2413. https://doi.org/10.1177/00219983211012345
[24] Wang, Z., Li, J., & Zhang, Y. (2024). Building a layer-structured aluminum/graphene composite with significant improvement in electrical conductivity. Materials, 17(12), 2979. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17122979
[25] Singh, V. P., Gupta, G. K., Mishra, S., & Kumar, A. (2026). Evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of graphene oxide-reinforced aluminum alloy (6061) composite fabricated via accumulative roll bonding. International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials, 33(3), 935-952. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-025-3194-7
[26] Yang, Z., Liu, H., Chen, X., & Wang, L. (2025). Towards high performance nano multilayered graphene/5052 Al composite: In situ interfacial tailoring via accumulative roll bonding. Carbon, 238, 120213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2025.120213
Iranian Journal of Materials Forming

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 14 July 2026

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics