Synthesis and Direct Manufacturing of High Conductivity Aluminum Alloy Conductors Using an Energy Efficient Solid-State Process and Their Advanced Characterization

Enabled Engineering proposes to demonstrate a novel solid-state process for fabricating high-conductivity aluminum–nano-carbon conductors. And, characterize the conductor materials using advanced analytical characterization tools such as high resolution SEM, XRD, TEM, 3D Atom Probe Microscope and various spectrometers to understand the science behind electrical conductivity improvement in aluminum–nano-carbon conductors. A successful demonstration of the manufacturing, characterization and modelling of the process will lead to the commercialization of the materials in the electrical transmission industry to reduce the energy losses, and in mobility industry to reduce the weight. Liquid phase processing of metal-graphite composites processed in presence electric current and resultant vigorous mixing shown to have improved electrical conductivity in small length scales but the bulk material conductivity is lowered by presence of volumetric defects. On the other hand, Metal–nano-carbon composites processed though solid-phase processing have shown to improve electrical conductivity in bulk materials. However, use of prefabricated nano-carbon is tedious and expensive. In order to address both volumetric defects and use of expensive prefabricated nanotubes and graphene nano-sheets, Enabled engineering proposes to use its proprietary SolidStir extrusion process to manufacture aluminum–nano-carbon composite using aluminum as base metal and graphite as additive. The graphite used in this study expected to be converted into in-situ graphene during processing due to an intense shear mixing. Successful development of this technology will result in energy efficient production of low-cost high-conductivity materials which can save enormous amount of energy loss during electricity transmission and weight saving. In addition, Solid-Stir extrusion process is a versatile process which can be adapted for several other applications such as solid-state alloying, composite manufacturing and material recycling combined with extrusion in single step. This project can also be developed into a method of processing microstructurally sensitive materials such as ball milled/mechanically alloyed powder. Hence, this project has tremendous potential to become a successful one to strengthen the US materials and manufacturing competitiveness.