Thermal Expansion of Zr-Diamond/Cu Composite Prepared by Gas Pressure Infiltration
摘要
Diamond/Cu composite is a promising thermal management material. Suitable coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the diamond/Cu composite is important to the practical applications. Herein, we deposit a uniform 75 nm-thick Zr coating onto diamond particles with a particle size of 272 µm using magnetron sputtering, and then prepare Zr-diamond/Cu composites using gas pressure infiltration. The metallic Zr coating transforms into the ZrC interlayer between the Cu matrix and the diamond reinforcement in the diamond/Cu composite. A chemical bonding is formed at the ZrC/diamond interface, relieving the significant CTE mismatch between Cu and diamond. The CTE of diamond/Cu composite is remarkably decreased from 13.9 to 5.5 × 10−6/K after introducing the ZrC interlayer, which is attributed to a combination of strong interfacial bonding achieved through the ZrC interlayer and high diamond volume fraction (66%). The CTE values of the Zr-diamond/Cu composite are almost unchanged after 100 thermal cycles, exhibiting excellent application potential. This study reveals that the gas pressure infiltration coupled with magnetron sputtering is a promising method to prepare diamond/Cu composite with suitable CTE.