The effect of adding nano-nickel oxide on the physical properties of (Al-SiO2) by powder method

There are a wide range of methods used to manufacture the materials, and one of these methods is powder technology, which is usually easy to manufacture at the lowest possible cost. Aluminium was used as a base material with a percentage of 3%wt.SiO2, and nano-nickel oxide were added in different volume ratios, namely (2,4,6,8,10)%wt. The different powders were mixed using a locally made powder, and a pressing mould with a diameter of 10mm was prepared. The mixed powders were pressed using a hydraulic press at 5 tons. The samples resulting from the pressing process were heat treated in an oven at a temperature of 600˚C for two hours. A number of physical tests were conducted on the resulting samples before and after thermal sintering, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (EDS). The true density, true porosity and water absorption were also tested, as well as the hardness, compressive strength and wear rate. The results showed that the best mixing ratio is 10%wt. before and after thermal sintering, which gave high surface homogeneity, hardness and compressive strength with the lowest wear rate. We also found an increase in the values of true density and porosity with a decrease in water absorption.