Multiwall Carbon Nanotube‐SiO₂ Nanocomposites: Sintering, Elastic Properties, and Fracture Toughness

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are one of the most studied nanomaterials for a broad range of applications because of their unique mechanical and physical properties. This made applications of the CNT for reinforcements of metal, polymer and ceramic matrix composites an important topic of interest. In this paper, multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) are homogeneously dispersed in colloidal silica using attrition milling technique and the obtained powder mixtures are consolidated by spark-plasma sintering. The incorporation of CNT led to increase of elastic moduli and fracture toughness of the nanocomposites. In particular, fracture toughness of the nanocomposites increased by a factor of ∼2 due to the incorporation of CNT.