Tribological behavior of carbon nanotube/aluminosilicate composites prepared through TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol–gel and CVD process

The carbon nanotube (CNT)/aluminosilicate composites were fabricated by the TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol–gel and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method in this study. Two different CVD growing processes were carefully controlled. One is the continuous process, the other is the CVD growing/calcining process. Different process temperatures for different CVD growing/calcining processes were also adopted to fabricate different CNT/aluminosilicate powders. Furthermore, the mechanical properties, the tribological properties and the microstructure observation of the CNT/aluminosilicate composites, which synthesized by hot pressing of powders generated as described above were studied in depth.Experimental results indicate that the TEOS/boehmite catalyst sol–gel with different CVD growing/calcining processes generate different products. The final products from the TEOS/boehmite catalytic sol–gel via the two-step CVD growing/calcining process are mainly Mullite, α-Al2O3, cristobalite and CNTs. The hardness tests reveal that the composite made by those products through the two-step CVD reaction show higher hardness than others. In addition, it is found that the CNT/aluminosilicate composites prepared via the two-step CVD growing/calcining process exhibits lower weight losses and friction coefficient.