Study on the Effect of NanoSilica Sand Addition to the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Iron Powder

Iron base alloys materials have mostly been used in lots of industrial application. Pure iron is very soft thus further improvement should be made by introducing the reinforcement into the iron for various applications. This present study aims to develop an iron matrix composite with nanoparticles silica sand. The objective of project is to study the effect of silica sand (SiO2) nanoparticles addition on the physical and mechanical properties of iron powder . The nanoparticles silica sand with average size of 60-80 nm was mix with 10µm (99.5%) of iron using powder metallurgy process. The powder metallurgy process involves mixing, compaction and sintering. Few samples of composite is mixed with 5wt.%, 10wt.%, 15wt.%, and 20wt.% of nanoparticles silica sand and compacted by powder metallurgy. Green sample is then sintered at 3 different temperature ; 900 oC, 1000 oC and 1100 oC. Green density and sintered densities are measured using Archimedes technique and then the results are analyzed. Results show that the sintered density is denser compared to green body density and the optimum sintered density of 7.347 g/cm3 was obtained at temperature of 1100oC. It was observed that with increasing sintered temperature the microstructure and mechanical properties of the composites improved. The addition of silica sand nanoparticles to iron enhanced the hardness from 82.7 HRV to 167.4HRV. Optimum hardness of 167.4HV also obtained at temperature of 1100 oC. FESEM and EDX analysis had showed that silica sand nanoparticles diffuse in the porous sites of composites causing an improvement in mechanical properties as well as improved the microstructure.