Hierarchical tungsten-copper composite reinforced by a concrete skeleton of particulate and fibrous tungsten with coherent Cr precipitates in the copper matrix

The substitution of a precipitation-hardenable alloy of Cu-0.5wt.%Cr for the widely adopted pure Cu has been proposed for infiltration into the pre-sintered concrete skeleton of particulate and fibrous W. By the reinforcement of a concrete skeleton of particulate and fibrous W along with coherent Cr precipitates in the Cu matrix, the composite exhibited superior comprehensive properties. Specifically, the proposed composite here exhibited a high tensile strength of 601.2 MPa improved by 22.7%, a low friction coefficient of 0.567 decreased by 27.3% and high electrical breakdown strength of 9.07 x 10(7) V/m increased by 101.5%. Notably, due to the precipitation of the coherent Cr particles to lower the solute content in the Cu matrix, the composite exhibited rather good electrical conductivity of 51.4%IACS. The proposed strategy by infiltration of precipitation-hardenable Cu-based alloys into the W skeleton here provides a new clue for the microstructure design and performance enhancement of novel W-Cu composites.

Automated summary

By infiltrating precipitation-hardenable Cu-based alloys into the W skeleton, the composite can exhibit improved comprehensive properties, such as tensile strength, friction coefficient, and electrical breakdown strength.