Fabrication of Cu-Based SiC Composites by Spark Plasma Sintering of Cu-Nitrate Coated SiC Powders

An optimum route to fabricate the Cu-based SiC composites with homogeneous microstructure was investigated. Three methods for developing the densified composites with sound interface between Cu and SiC were compared on the basis of the resulting microstructures. Starting with three powder mixtures of elemental Cu and SiC, elemental Cu and PCS coated SiC or PCS and Cunitrate coated SiC was used to obtain Cu-based SiC composites. SEM analysis revealed that the composite fabricated by spark plasma sintering using elemental SiC and Cu powder mixture showed inhomogeneous microstructure. Conversely, dense microstructure with sound interface was observed in the sintered composites using powder mixture of pre-coated PCS and Cu-nitrate onto SiC.