Effect of sintering on the relative density of Cr-coated diamond/Cu composites prepared by spark plasma sintering

Cr-coated diamond/Cu composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering. The effects of sintering pressure, sintering temperature, sintering duration, and Cu powder particle size on the relative density and thermal conductivity of the composites were investigated in this paper. The influence of these parameters on the properties and microstructures of the composites was also discussed. The results show that the relative density of Cr-coated diamond/Cu reaches similar to 100% when the composite is gradually compressed to 30 MPa during the heating process. The densification temperature increases from 880 to 915 degrees C when the diamond content is increased from 45vol% to 60vol%. The densification temperature does not increase further when the content reaches 65vol%. Cu powder particles in larger size are beneficial for increasing the relative density of the composite.