Mechanical and electrical behaviour of developed copper based hybrid composites

Copper metal has good electrical, thermal and corrosion properties but its applications are restricted for mechanical properties. To fulfil these requisite properties in the copper metal, the stir casting technique was used to develop copper based hybrid composites by reinforcing WC, TiC, Cr and graphite. These reinforced hybrid composite posses good mechanical properties. The developed hybrid composites were characterized by X-rays diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive analysis of x-rays (EDAX), optical microscope, tensile test, Brinell hardness test, electrical conductivity and density measurement. It was observed that hybrid composites show improved mechanical properties compared to its matrix without much affecting the electrical conductivity. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.