This disclosure, and the exemplary embodiments provided herein, include 3D printed titanium composites and methods including 1 vol. % carbon nanotube reinforcements on selective laser melt printed Ti64. The interrelationships with laser energy density, laser power, and laser scan speed are demonstrated and discussed. Utilizing selective laser melting, according to one exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, a >99% dense Ti-CNT composite is disclosed with microhardness of 4.75 GPa—a 30% enhancement over its Ti64 counterpart.

This disclosure, and the exemplary embodiments provided herein, include 3D printed titanium composites and methods including 1 vol. % carbon nanotube reinforcements on selective laser melt printed Ti64. The interrelationships with laser energy density, laser power, and laser scan speed are demonstrated and discussed. Utilizing selective laser melting, according to one exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, a >99% dense Ti-CNT composite is disclosed with microhardness of 4.75 GPa—a 30% enhancement over its Ti64 counterpart.

A soft magnetic composite comprising an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material coated with an oxide material. An interface between the ferromagnetic material and the layer of oxide contains antiphase domain boundaries. Two processes for producing a soft magnetic composite are also provided. One process includes depositing an oxide layer onto an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material by molecular beam epitaxy at a partial oxygen pressure of from 1×10.sup.−5 Torr to 1×10.sup.−7 Torr to form a coated composite. The other process includes milling an iron or iron alloy ferromagnetic material powder and an oxide powder by high-energy milling to form a mixture; compacting the mixture and curing in an inert gas atmosphere at a temperature from 500° C. to 1200° C. to form a soft magnetic composite.

A cubic boron nitride sintered material includes cubic boron nitride and a binder. The binder includes a first material and a second material. The first material is one or two or more first chemical species each including at least one first metallic element selected from the group consisting of tungsten, cobalt, and aluminum. Each of the first chemical species is a metal, an alloy, an intermetallic compound, a compound, or a solid solution. The second material is one or two or more second chemical species each including at least one second metallic element selected from the group consisting of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, and chromium. Each of the second chemical species is a solid solution derived from at least one selected from the group consisting of nitride, carbide, and carbonitride. In each of the second chemical species, 0.1 atom % to 10 atom % of aluminum is dissolved.

Some variations provide a method of making a nanofunctionalized metal powder, comprising: providing metal particles containing metals selected from iron, nickel, copper, titanium, magnesium, zinc, silicon, lithium, silver, chromium, manganese, vanadium, bismuth, gallium, or lead; providing nanoparticles selected from zirconium, tantalum, niobium, or titanium; disposing the nanoparticles onto surfaces of the metal particles, in the presence of mixing media, thereby generating nanofunctionalized metal particles; and isolating and recovering the nanofunctionalized metal particles as a nanofunctionalized metal powder. Some variations provide a composition comprising a nanofunctionalized metal powder, the composition comprising metal particles and nanoparticles containing one or more elements selected from the group consisting of zirconium, tantalum, niobium, titanium, and oxides, nitrides, hydrides, carbides, or borides thereof, or combinations of the foregoing.

A method of manufacturing an extruded material of carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composite having improved corrosion resistance, and the extruded material manufactured thereby are proposed. The method may include manufacturing an extruded material comprising an aluminum-carbon nanotube composite material and forming a hard oxide film on the surface of the extruded material by anodizing the extruded material in a mixed solution of sulfuric acid and oxalic acid. The method can form a hard oxide film with excellent corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, and insulation properties on the surface of a composite material (an extruded material of carbon nanotube reinforced aluminum matrix composite material), which is known to be difficult to conduct hard anodizing due to the difference in corrosion characteristics between materials and, accordingly, the usability of the composite material can be significantly improved.

Methods for repurposing waste materials, such as aluminum powder, are disclosed. A method in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure may comprise collecting a material in a container, the material comprising oxidized aluminum powder, processing the material, which includes heating the material to melt at least a portion of the oxidized aluminum powder, and forming the processed material into at least one component.

The present invention discloses a preparation process of multi-component spherical alloy powder, which adopts a plasma rotation electrode process (PREP) method to prepare the multi-component spherical alloy powder. The multi-component alloy includes at least one of refractory metals and compounds thereof, specifically including tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, niobium, rhenium, tungsten carbide, tantalum carbide and the like.

The present invention adopts the PREP method to prepare the multi-component spherical alloy powder containing the refractory metals or compound thereof, and the prepared multi-component spherical alloy powder has high sphericity, good fluidity and high tap density, and is low in content of impurity elements and output of hollow powder and satellite powder; compared with other preparation methods, the prepared alloy powder has better performance and is an ideal material for metal 3D printing; and the present invention further solves the problem of difficulty in preparing a round rod with the refractory metals or compound thereof as a base material used in the PREP method, and provides a spatial structure meshing method, a direct element mixing method or a porous framework method to prepare a multi-component alloy rod.

Alloys comprised of a refined microstructure, ultrafine or nano scaled, that when reacted with water or any liquid containing water will spontaneously and rapidly produce hydrogen at ambient or elevated temperature are described. These metals, termed here as aluminum based nanogalvanic alloys will have applications that include but are not limited to energy generation on demand. The alloys may be composed of primarily aluminum and other metals e.g., tin bismuth, indium, gallium, lead, etc. and/or carbon, and mixtures and alloys thereof. The alloys may be processed by ball milling for the purpose of synthesizing powder feed stocks, in which each powder particle will have the above-mentioned characteristics. These powders can be used in their inherent form or consolidated using commercially available techniques for the purpose of manufacturing useful functional components.

Carbon fiber reinforced metal matrix composite gears include a planar carbon fiber structure fully encapsulated within a metal matrix formed of sintered metal nanoparticles. The metal nanoparticles can be composed of a metal having a high sintering temperature that would ordinarily destroy the carbon fiber. Novel techniques for making small uniform nanoparticles for sintering lowers the sintering temperature to a level that can accommodate carbon fiber. The composite gears possess high strength to weight ratio.