LAUSR

Abstract The present paper discusses the electrically activated reactive synthesis (EARS) of Ni/CNT-Al nano-composite powders. The effect of initial relative green density (RGD) on reaction characteristics and resultant microstructure has been investigated in addition to post reaction electro-annealing. Results show that a relative density of 0.67 RGD resulted in the highest combustion temperature and lowest product porosity, while detrimental cracking was observed at the higher RGDs during EARS. Post reaction electro-annealing was also found to promote homogenization and sintering of as-reacted products. Microhardness values as high as ∼250 HV are reported following electro-annealing.