Fabrication And Heat-treatment Properties Of Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ Composite

With the rapid development of new technologies on aviation, spaceflight and micro-electronics,the request of general properties to Cu-matrix is getting higher and higher.Due to have the special properties of both metal and ceramics, MAX compound has became the hotspot of research inland and overseas as the wild phase.This work mainly studies the fabrication and heat-treatment properties of Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ composite.The missions of this work are:(1),To fabricate high purity of Ti₃AlC₂ powders and (20～60vol.%) Cu with Ti₃AlC₂ composite bulks.(2),The structure and properties of Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ of different volume ratios.(3),The heat-treatment of 30Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ and 50Cu/Ti₃AlC₂.(4),The influence to materials made by heat-treatment.The results show that high purity of Ti₃AlC₂ powders can be obtained by pressureless sintering the proper mole ratios of Ti,Al,Sn,C powders at 1450℃for 10 minutes.Also,the compact Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ composite can be obtained by hot pressure sintering the proper ratios of Cu and Ti₃AlC₂ powders at 1150℃and the maximal pressure is 30 MPa.Due to the firm combination between the accumulative lamination of TiC_x and Cu(Al) alloy, and spacial network configuration formed by Cu(Al),(40～60vol.%) Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ possess excellent general properties.However, (20～30vol.%)Cu/Ti₃AlC₂ products intermetallic compound,their general properties decrease.Heat-treatment can improve the properties clearly to 30Cu/Ti₃AlC₂. After 950℃during 8 hours heat-treatment,the alloy has dissolved adequately and improved material's interior fabric,so the material's general properties are enhanced.On the contrary, heat-treatment can't improve the properties of 50Cu/Ti₃AlC₂.Though the heat-treatment after 1500℃has made the the TiC_x layers out, the TiC_x grains have grown up clearly from 150 nm before heat-treatment to severalμm. The material's general properties are reduced.The innovation of this work is a primary research about heat-trearment of Cu/Ti₃AlC₂,and has blazen a way in fabricating high strength and high conductivity copper/ceramic composite.