Evaluation of a dry ball-milling technique as a method for mixing boron carbide and carbon nanotube powders

To evaluate the mixing effectiveness of dry ball-milling, multi-walled carbon nanotubes were ball-milled with boron carbide powder, and the resulting mixtures were hot pressed to consolidated tiles. Density, hardness, Young's modulus, and fracture strength of the tiles were measured; all decreased with increasing nanotube content. Microscopic examination revealed that the nanotubes were present in the tiles as micron-sized-and-larger agglomerates. It is concluded that the degree of dispersion of the nanotubes achieved by dry ball-milling was not sufficient to achieve mixing and bonding between the nanotubes and the boron carbide particles.