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Enhancing the mechanical–electrical property simultaneously in pure copper composites by using carbonized polymer dots

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Abstract

In the development of copper-based composite materials, the dilemma of improving the mechanical properties without affecting the electrical properties is an important issue that must be solved. Here, carbonized polymer dot (CPD), as a novel reinforcement, was employed to fabricate CPD/Cu (pure copper) composite via powder metallurgy technique for the first time. The microstructure analysis revealed that the CPD was uniformly dispersed in the copper matrix in the form of nanoclusters, and the nanoclusters of CPD are composed of a three-dimensional amorphous carbon (AC) network structure and inserted carbon dots (some of them have a typical graphene structure, while others not). More importantly, excellent interface combination between the CPD and copper matrix is observed due to the existing of plenty of chemical functional groups. Based on this special microstructure, our prepared CPD/Cu composite achieves excellent mechanical and electrical conductivity simultaneously. Compared to pure Cu, the ultra-tensile strength of 0.2CPD/Cu composite is increased by about 17.0%, while the elongation is only ~ 2% lower. The electrical conductivity of the composite is ~ 98% IACS, which is much higher than that of pure copper prepared under the same condition (only ~ 92% IACS). New insights into how to prepare advanced copper matrix composites with simultaneously improved overall performance will be found from our research.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 52064032), the Yunnan science and technology projects (Grant No. 2019ZE001, No. 202002AB080001), Yunnan Ten Thousand Talents Plan Young & Elite Talents Project (YNWR-QNBJ-2018-005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Wen-min Zhao, Rui Bao & Jian-hong Yi

  2. State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Rui Bao & Jian-hong Yi

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  1. Wen-min Zhao
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Zhao, Wm., Bao, R. & Yi, Jh. Enhancing the mechanical–electrical property simultaneously in pure copper composites by using carbonized polymer dots. J Mater Sci 56, 12753–12763 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06116-5

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