Edosa Osarue Osaruene, Tekweme Francis Kunzi, Olubambi Peter A, Gupta Kapil
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Technology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa.
Centre for Nanoengineering and Advanced Materials, School of Mining, Metallurgy and Chemical Engineering, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2028, South Africa.
Materials (Basel). 2025 Mar 11;18(6):1246. doi: 10.3390/ma18061246.
The utilization of agricultural wastes in composite fabrication leads to attaining sustainability in manufacturing. This study investigates the use of plantain peel ash (PPA) as a reinforcement to fabricate Al/Mg/PPA composites using ball milling and spark plasma sintering (SPS) technology. The impact of PPA weight fraction and SPS parameters on Al/Mg/PPA composites' densification and hardness were analyzed. Microstructural characterization revealed that the PPA reinforcement was uniformly distributed in the aluminum matrix with no considerable microstructural defects. The relative densities of the composites were higher at elevated sintering temperatures, with composites displaying reduced porosity as the sintering temperature rose. The composites also exhibited the highest micro-hardness of 77 HV, improving 86.89% over the sintered aluminum matrix (base material). The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results revealed that the sintering temperature and reinforcement material significantly influenced the relative density (RD) of the sintered composites, while the reinforcement material significantly influenced the micro-hardness. Conclusively, the composite samples made using agricultural waste derivatives possess good mechanical properties and are suitable for various industrial applications.
在复合材料制造中利用农业废弃物有助于实现制造业的可持续发展。本研究探讨了使用芭蕉果皮灰（PPA）作为增强材料，采用球磨和放电等离子烧结（SPS）技术制备Al/Mg/PPA复合材料。分析了PPA重量分数和SPS参数对Al/Mg/PPA复合材料致密化和硬度的影响。微观结构表征表明，PPA增强材料均匀分布在铝基体中，没有明显的微观结构缺陷。在较高的烧结温度下，复合材料的相对密度更高，随着烧结温度升高，复合材料的孔隙率降低。复合材料还表现出最高77 HV的显微硬度，比烧结铝基体（基材）提高了86.89%。方差分析（ANOVA）结果表明，烧结温度和增强材料对烧结复合材料的相对密度（RD）有显著影响，而增强材料对显微硬度有显著影响。总之，使用农业废弃物衍生物制成的复合材料样品具有良好的机械性能，适用于各种工业应用。
