13. Reinforcement Effect of Nano Fe₃O₄ and Nb₂Al on the Mechanical and Physical Properties of Cu-Al Based Composites

In the present work, Copper-Aluminium based composites(CAMCs) were designed through 3 different manufacturing processes; “Sintering, “Sinter + Forging” and also “sinter + thixoforming” was made a pre alloy from pure electrolytic copper that was doped with atomized recycled aluminium alloy chips (AA7075) that was given by French Aeronautical Society. After that, a typical composite was created by adding nano magnetic iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) with a special treatment. Nb₂Al intermetallic was also used as reinforcements to increase the wear resistance of the final structure. Graphene Nano Plates (GNPs) and nickel were also added to the CAMCs structures to improve mechanical behaviour and wear resistance of these novel composites. The addition of hard ceramic and/or intermetallic particles to soft copper matrix can significantly improve the mechanical properties and wear resistance, without any serious deteriorating of both magnetic, thermal and electrical conductivities of copper based composites.

Briefly, Cu-Al based composite can be successfully used to produce as high quality metal matrix composites in an economic way in the electronic field. Microstructural evaluation was performed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and EDS analyses to optimize influence of the major reinforcements distributed in the matrix.

Mechanical and physical properties of the composites designed here can be improved with the processing method and reinforcement volume fractions. Macro scratch, nano wear and micro hardness tests were also made for these composites.