Carbon materials, including carbon fibers, graphite, diamond, carbon foams, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, are attractive reinforcements for aluminum matrix composites due to their excellent mechanical and/or physical properties as well as light weight. Carbon materials reinforced aluminum(C/Al) composites are promising materials in many areas such as aerospace, thermal management, and automobile. However, there are still some challenging problems that need to be resolved,such as interfacial reactions, low wettability, and anisotropic properties. These problems have limited the use of these composites. This review mainly focuses on the categories, fabrication processes, existing problems and solutions, coatings and interfaces, challenges and opportunities of C/Al composites so as to provide a useful reference for future research. Carbon materials, including carbon fibers, graphite, diamond, carbon foams, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, are attractive reinforcements for aluminum matrix composites due to their excellent mechanical and / or physical properties as well as light weight. Carbon materials reinforced aluminum (C / However, there are still some challenging problems that need to be resolved, such as interfacial reactions, low wettability, and anisotropic properties. These problems have limited the use of these composites. This review focuses on the categories, fabrication processes, existing problems and solutions, coatings and interfaces, challenges and opportunities of C / Al composites so as to provide a useful reference for future research.