Influence of nickel coating on the interfacial bonding characteristics of carbon nanotube–aluminum composites

The mechanical behaviors of Ni-coated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and their embedded aluminum matrix composites are investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. The results show that the Young’s modulus of the Ni-coated SWCNT/Al composite is obviously larger than that of the uncoated SWCNT/Al composite, though the Young’s modulus of a Ni-coated SWCNT is much lower than that of an uncoated SWCNT. The results also show that the interfacial bonding of SWCNT/Al composite can be drastically increased by addition of Ni coating to provide an effective channel for load transfer between the nanotube and Al matrix. Furthermore, the influences of Ni coating density on the interfacial bonding characteristics of SWCNT/Al composites also are studied. For three types of Ni coating density, i.e., 4.84%, 9.68% and 19.36%, the initial pullout load of the Ni-coated SWCNT from Al matrix about are 13.5, 16.9 and 21.7 times larger, respectively, than that of the uncoated SWCNT.