Processing of Aluminum Wires Treated with Diboride Nanoparticles and Its Effect On Their Electrical and Mechanical Properties

This study presents the fabrication of aluminum wires by adding NbB₂ nanoparticles into molten aluminum. These nanoparticles were obtained by fragmentation in a high energy ball mill and then mechanically alloyed with pure aluminum powder. The resulting Al/NbB₂ pellets obtained were sintered at 260⁰C for half hour. The sintered pellets were incorporated into molten aluminum. After solidification the ingot was cold rolled to obtain 1mm diameter wires with a reduction of area of 96%. The wire specimens were mechanically characterized and their electrical resistivity was measured and compared with pure aluminum. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of improving the mechanical properties of the wires without significantly affecting their electrical resistivity.