Nickel-Coated Super-Aligned Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Copper Composite for Improved Strength and Conductivity

Nickel (Ni)-coated super-aligned carbon nanotube (SACNT) films-reinforced copper (Cu) matrix composites were fabricated by electrodeposition. The microstructure, mechanical property and electrical conductivity of the prepared composites have been studied systematically. The results show that the mechanical properties of SACNT/Cu were significantly improved by coating SACNT with Ni. When the volume fraction of SACNT is 10.0%, the tensile strength and yield strength of the composite can reach 477.8 and 295.5 MPa, respectively, corresponding to 147 and 170% improvement compared to pure Cu prepared by the same method. Meanwhile, due to the super-aligned arrangement of SACNTs and the homogeneous distribution of Ni, which is not mixing or dissolving with Cu, the conductivities of all the Ni-coated SACNT-reinforced Cu composites are above 58% IACS, which is about 4 times higher than the results in previous research. The enhancement of the strength of the SACNT/Cu composites comes from the combined contribution of load transfer and grain refinement strengthening.