Don't know if it's useful, but model airplane engines burning alcohol & nitro typically use an aluminum piston running in a chrome plated brass cylinder liner (typically in an aluminum block). No rings - it's a tight fit cold, and works out via the thermal expansion.
If you want information from professional engineers who research this subject with the aid of serious money and well-equipped labs, it's a subject that has come up from time to time in SAE white papers. You have to pay for them, but it's cheap if you're serious about building something.
Go to the SAE site and you'll find the publications.
You didn't indicate a displacement size. Assuming you are interested in something up to about 10cc displacement, but most likely in the 1cc -
2.5 cc displacement range:
4032 AL for the cylinder with chrome plating on the bore
A high silicon (>20%) AL sintered piston (not quite, but almost unobtainium)
2024 AL for the rod with the lower end bushed or perhaps 7068 AL without a bushing
2024 AL T3 or T4 for the case if you machine it from a block
390 AL aged to T6 if you cast it
Stay away from 6061 and 7075 for model airplane engines. 6061 moves too much under pressure and heat. 7075 loses a lot of its desirable properties when heated much over 125 to 150 degrees C
Titanium has a lot of nice properties except it has a tendency to gall when there is a moving interface. It's temperature expansion ratio is very different that the normal bushing materials, AL, and steels used in model engines which bring a whole new set of problems.
Ed is right, the SAE has some very good materials. Send them lots of money and brush up on your math. Those reports have a wealth of information but are not written for the non-engineering type.
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