Physicomechanical properties of spark plasma sintered carbon nanotube-reinforced metal matrix nanocomposites

The technological and industrial needs for development of fully dense nanocomposites have led to significant advances in spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique and its enhanced forms. This technique has opened up a new prospect over carbon nanotube (CNT)-metal matrix nanocomposites (MMNCs) with superior physical or mechanical characteristics. To date, a large number of authentic papers have been published over this ongoing field, but have not been comprehensively reviewed. The pertinent research works cover some significant aspects of CNT-MMNCs requiring a concise review on (i) the potential phase transformations of pure CNTs and microstructure evolution; (ii) the novel approaches for uniform dispersion of CNTs inside the metallic matrices including Cu, Al, Ag, Ni, Ti, Mg, and Fe; and (iii) recent improvements in mechanical, thermal, electrical, biological, and tribological properties of CNT-MMNCs. The present review paper strives to scrutinize the aforementioned topics and provide a broad overview of the unsolved challenges and suggested solutions for them.