AUC Professor researches using carbon nanotubes to strengthen aluminium

As aluminium becomes more popular in industries like aviation and automotive, Amal Esawi, a professor of mechanical engineering at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is researching ways to make aluminium stronger using carbon nanotubes, retaining its lightweight.

Esawi has already won the prestigious Egyptian State Encouragement Award and AUC 's Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award for her work in aluminium-carbon nanotube composites. Now she is trying to find an alternative to alloying which is costly, instead she plans to us nano-sized rolls of interconnected carbon atoms shaped like tiny cylindrical chain-linked fences.

The cost of the nanotubes are reducing every year and since you need fewer of them to add strength that you minimize the waste materials at the same time increase sustainability and reduce cost.

The problem with carbon nanotubes has been the lack of uniform dispersion as they tend to agglomerate due to their tiny sizes. Esawi has discovered that the use of ball milling, a mechanical technique that grinds and fractures metal particles that then weld together to create metal mixtures has been the most favorable technique to produce a more even distribution.

Esawi believes that carbon nanotubes have great potential and says, "Before we know it, nanotechnology will be touching virtually every aspect of our lives -- to the better."