Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2015
This work shows a cost effective process to prepare carbon-carbon nanostructured composites using mechanical milling (MM) and a new manufacturing method based on rapid induction sintering. Here we use commercially and cost effective amorphous sources of carbon. The nature of the raw carbon is characterized by means of XRD and Raman, and after MM and sintering we observe a clear evolution of the phases of carbon in situ into more complex structures, including but not limited to graphene, graphitic carbon, and nanodiamond. The raw soot transforms in situ into graphitic particles after 1 hour of MM. Further milling (10 hours) induces the formation of nano-diamond particles. Milling times between 1 and 10 h are ideal to prepare intermediate phases between graphene and nanodiamond. In other words MM is capable of inducing the formation of nearly amorphous carbon soot into complex structures that are ideal for structural composite materials. The sintering process is a novel method involving a “pressureless” process and rapid induction heating. Furthermore, the carbon nanostructures that are produced during milling serve as seeds to grow larger particles that can easily reach micrometric sizes. This process achieved high densification as that proposed in commercial methods such as Spark Plasma Sintering.