EFFECTS OF SINTERING PARAMETERS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CU/CNTS NANOCOMPOSITES

Higher-powered electronics are being integrated into daily used
devices rapidly. With these electronics, the need
to remove the excessive heat generated from those devices effic
iently and more economically became essential. In
response to these critical needs, a unique nanocomposite materi
al made of copper reinforced by carbon nanotubes was
developed via powder injection molding technique (PIM). This wo
rk aims to study the effect of different PIM sintering
parameters on the microstructural characteristics of carbon nan
otubes reinforced copper nanocomposites (Cu/CNTs). The
effect of these parameters has a significant effect on the mech
anical and thermal properties of the produced composites.
For instance, the influences of varying the sintering dwell tim
e on the densification process showed that short sintering
dwell times (90 and 120 min at 1050 °C) were insufficient for a
chieving complete sintered samples. Meanwhile, attempts
were applied to increase the diffusion rate between the Cu part
icles and CNTs by increasing the sintering dwell time up to
180 min at 1050 °C. The results showed a clear enhancement on t
he densification process but led to a decomposition of the
CNTs into amorphous carbon. The optimal sintering temperature f
or achieving fully dense nanocomposite was optimized
to be 1050 °C. Fully dense nanocomposite can provide large phon
on mean free path inside the microstructure resulting
high thermally conductive material