The fabrication and characteristics of amorphous silica reinforced Al matrix composites are studied in this paper. The major starting materials were commercial Al powder and extracted nanoparticle SiO 2 (NPS) powder from Indonesian silica sands. Two different active solutions, namely N-butanol and tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), were introduced during synthesis. Characterisations in terms of physical, mechanical, microstructural and corrosion rate examinations were also employed.

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... ng the SiO 2 nanoparticles into the Al matrix has decreased the density and increased the porosity of the composites. The addition of N-butanol into Al/SiO 2 (Al/SiO 2 (B)) led to broader and lower X-ray diffraction profiles than the addition of TMAH (Al/SiO 2 (T)). From the microstructural analysis, we found that the SiO 2 particles enter and agglomerate into the opening gap of the Al sheets. Furthermore, yield strength, ultimate compression strength and modulus of elasticity tended to reduce the addition of SiO 2 . The corrosion rate of Al/SiO 2 (T) was lower than that of Al/SiO 2 (B) composites.