Nanostructuring of an Aluminum Alloy and Investigation of the Mechanical Properties of the Resulting Al/C60 Nanocomposite

The nanostructuring of an AMg6 aluminum alloy is carried out by the method of severe plastic deformation via the hot extrusion of a billet made of pressed nanocomposite powder, which is obtained by the dispersion of a mixture of alloy chips and C60 fullerite powder in a planetary ball mill. The structural features of the resulting n-AMg6/C60 nanocomposite are investigated. Experimental studies of the mechanical characteristics of the n-AMg6/C60 nanocomposite are presented. The stress–strain curves σ = σ(ε) are measured for the nanostructured composite samples upon a cyclic variation in the stress applied to the samples. During the experiments, almost no residual deformations are detected in the samples of n-AMg6/C60 composite, and the stress–strain curves do not contain regions corresponding to plastic deformation. It is established that reversible mechanical loading–unloading of the samples of AMg6/C60 causes their hardening. These data are supplemented by measurements of the microhardness and changes in the velocity of longitudinal elastic waves upon a cyclic variation in the load on the sample.