In the industry, removing heat from cutting zones during machining presents a major challenge. Consequently, there is increased demand for reasonably priced and environmentally safe cooling agents during carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) machining for high-performance applications.
This work synthesized and characterized green titania (TiO2) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to create TiO2/CNTs nanocomposites (NCs) with varying proportions (9:1, 7:3, and 5:5). To investigate the NCs’ stability as potential fillers in base oils for creating nanofluids for machining carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRPs), a variety of analytical techniques was used to characterize them, including Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), high-resolution SEM/EDS, high-resolution TEM, XRD, and FTIR.
The FTIR spectra of the NCs indicate absorption peaks that are consistent with C=C and Ti-O bonds, generating peaks allocated to Ti-O-C and C-O bonds. Because primary peaks of CNTs and TiO2 overlap, the peaks attributed to CNTs are hardly visible, and those of anatase are easily identifiable.
Due to their larger surface area, pore volume, and stability as a nanosuspension, TiO2/CNTs (5:5) offers significant benefits over other NCs for heat removal: here lies the novelty of this research article utilizing green titania. The challenges associated with uncontrollable agglomeration of individual NCs are addressed by these hybrid NCs. Thus, it is concluded that TiO2/CNTs NCs are potential reinforcing fillers in base oils for machining.
