A carbon nanotube composite material includes a metallic base composed of a polycrystalline substance in which a plurality of rod-shaped metallic crystal grains are oriented in a same direction and a carbon nanotube conductive path, which is composed of a carbon nanotube, and forms a conductive path allowing electricity to conduct therethrough in a longitudinal direction of the metallic base by being present in a part of grain boundaries between the rod-shaped metallic crystal grains on a transverse plane of the metallic base, and being present along the longitudinal direction of the metallic base.

This disclosure, and the exemplary embodiments provided herein, disclose carbon nanotubes (CNT) integrated into 316L stainless steel (SS) powder feedstocks and 3D-printed using selective laser melting (SLM). Ball milling is used to disperse CNT clusters homogeneously onto the surface of 316L SS powders with minimal damage to the CNTs. Hardness increased by 35% and wear was reduced by 70% with the addition of 2 vol % CNT, relative to SLM 316L SS. The addition of CNTs increased the water contact angle and retained the desirable corrosion resistance of SLM 316L SS, demonstrating the potential of 3D-printed SS-CNT composites for use in structural marine applications.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a heterogeneous composite material thin plate and a heterogeneous composite material thin plate manufactured by same, the method comprising the steps of: (a) ball-milling an aluminum or aluminum alloy powder and a carbon nanotube powder so as to prepare a composite powder; (b) preparing a multi-layered billet comprising the composite powder, the multi-layered billet characterized by comprising a core layer and two or more shell layers surrounding the core layer, wherein the core layer is made of the composite powder or an aluminum alloy, the shell layers excluding the outermost shell layer are made of the composite powder, and the outermost shell layer is made of (i) an aluminum or aluminum alloy powder or (ii) the composite powder; and (c) rolling the multi-layered billet so as to form a thin plate shape.