Silver composites with an inhomogeneous structure reinforced by CNTs/Cu composite foams as 3-dimentional skeleton

Silver composites with an inhomogeneous structure have been designed and prepared through spark plasma sintering (SPS) with carbon nanotubes reinforced Cu foams (CNTs/Cu-f) as the reinforcing 3-dimentional skeletons. The composites simultaneously exhibit enhanced strength, good ductility and high conductivity, with the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 198.8 MPa, the fracture elongation of 38.5% and electrical conductivity of 98.53% IACS, respectively. After subsequent heat treatments, diffusion layers have formed with the thickness of about 10 mu m at the interface between skeletons and the silver matrix, causing further improvements of the UTS and slight reduction of the ductility and conductivity. The structures, properties and possible mechanisms of the composites are studied and discussed in this paper.

Automated summary

Silver composites with an inhomogeneous structure were prepared using spark plasma sintering (SPS) with carbon nanotubes reinforced Cu foams as the 3-dimensional skeletons. The composites exhibited enhanced strength, good ductility, and high conductivity, with the formation of diffusion layers after heat treatments leading to further improvements in strength but slight reductions in ductility and conductivity. The structures, properties, and possible mechanisms of the composites were studied and discussed in this paper.