Evaluation of the methods of dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in titanium and its alloys: Literature review

Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are used in several areas of application such as reactors, biomedical, aircraft, naval ships, spacecraft, armor plating amongst others. This is due to their exceptional corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, high tensile strength to weight ratio coupled with their ability to withstand moderately high temperatures without creep. However, they exhibit certain limitations, some of which include inferior wear resistance, low hardness, young's modulus and heat resistance. In an attempt to improve these properties, various reinforcements have been utilized for instance, ceramics (TiB, TiB2, SiC, Al2O3, and TiC) which helps to increase the stiffness and stability, metals (e.g. tungsten, W) that fosters the hardness and tensile strength of the material. However, the advent of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the other hand has shown to hold a great potential to tremendously augment the properties and use of Titanium and its alloys. Since the major problem associated with CNTs as reinforcement in metal matrix composites (MMCs) is achieving homogenous dispersion, this study aims at reviewing the different methods of dispersing CNTs in Ti and its alloy. The literature review carried out in this work has identified solution ball mill (SBM) as a good method of dispersion, although it's not completely effective and more work still needs to be done by researchers so as to obtain optimal mechanical properties from the process.