Spark plasma sintering of graphite-chromium carbide composites: Influence of the sintering temperature and powder synthesis method

Carbon-metal carbide composites are a novel family of materials with potential application in heat dissipation due to the lightness and thermal-mechanical properties. Within these composites, those of graphite-chromium carbide have been still few studied. Therefore, this research focuses on both the influence of the powder preparation method (mechanical mixing (MM) and colloidal synthesis (CS)) and the spark plasma sintering (SPS) temperature (1600, 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000 degrees C) in the properties of the composite graphite-7 vol. Cr. Results indicate that the composites sintered from powders processed by CS exhibit better properties, which can be explained by the better dispersion of the chromium carbide, formed during the sintering process, in the matrix of composite. Apart from the powder preparation method, sintering temperature has influence on the properties of the composite: 1900 degrees C is the best in the case of the route CS + SPS, while 2000 degrees C is the best option in the route MM + SPS. The thermal conductivity in-plane is 1.75 times greater in the CS than in the MM route, which suggests a better performance in the composite processed by colloidal route in heat dissipation applications.