CNTs/Al-Li composite was first prepared by hot-pressed sintering from Al-Li alloy powder and CNTs solution, and then the hot compression tests were performed on MMS-100 thermal simulator at strain rate range of 0.01– 10 s− 1, deformation temperature range of 350–500 °C, and total deformation amount of 60%. True stress–strain curves were plotted, and constitutive equation as well as hot processing maps were successfully confirmed based on Arrhenius constitutive model and Prasad instability criterion. Results show that CNTs/Al-Li composite have a very poor hot deformation ability and narrow processing region, which is strain rate range of 0.1–1 s− 1 and deformation temperature range of 360–400 °C. Hot extrusion experiment was carried out and the processing parameters were selected according to the established hot processing map, and an improvement on strength and a good balance between strength and plasticity can be obtained, which is about 650 MPa for tensile strength and 9% for elongation.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experiments
        2.1 Preparation of CNTsAl-Li composite
        2.2 Hot compression test
        2.3 Microstructure characterization
    3 Result and discussion
        3.1 Morphologies of CNTAl-Li composite
        3.2 True stress-true strain curve of CNTsAl-Li composite
        3.3 Constitutive equation
        3.4 Hot processing map
        3.5 Verification of hot processing maps
    4 Conclusion
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• Lei Jia(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology)
• Yang Liu(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology)
• Zhiguo Xing(National Key Lab for Remanufacturing)
• Gengchao He(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology)
• Zhenlin Lu(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology)
• Yongxin Zhou(School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology)