Properties of CNT-ceramic composites

Siegel etal.12 reported, in 2001, an improvement of the fracture toughness from 3.4 MPa.m1/2 for hot-pressed A1203 to 4.2 MPa.m1/2 for a hot-pressed 

The results which have attracted most attention, however, were those 

5 SEM image of the fracture surface of 5.7 vol% SWCNT-Fe-Al203 composite densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS) of a mixture of nanometric alumina and ropes of SWCNTs. Reprint from Nature Materials, No. 2, 2002, pp. 38-42, Zhan G.-D., Kuntz J.D., Wan J. and Mukherjee A.K., Single-wall carbon nanotubes as attractive toughening agents in alumina-based nanocomposites, with the permission of Nature Materials and of the authors (http // www.nature.com/nmat/index.html). 

Ning J., Zhang J., Pan Y. and Guo J., Fabrication and mechanical properties of Si02 matrix composites reinforced by carbon nanotube, pages 392-396, Copyright (2003) with permission from Elsevier. 

Very recently, Xia et al.43 reported microstructural investigations on MWCNTs which had been formed within the regular and well-aligned pores of an alumina membrane. The material was too thin (20-90 pm) to permit mechanical measurements, but different possible reinforcement mechanisms induced by the CNTs were evidenced on stressed and damaged materials, 

---

Only a few authors have reported results concerning the electrical properties of CNT-ceramic composites and most have been concerned with the influence... 

---