Improved Thermal Performance of Diamond-Copper Composites with Boron Carbide Coating

B4C-coated diamond (diamond@B4C) particles are used to improve the interfacial bonding and thermal properties of diamond/Cu composites. Scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were applied to characterize the formed B4C coating on diamond particles. It is found that the B4C coating strongly improves the interfacial bonding between the Cu matrix and diamond particles. The resulting diamond@B4C/Cu composites show high thermal conductivity of 665 W/mK and low coefficient of thermal expansion of 7.5 x 10(-6)/K at 60% diamond volume fraction, which are significantly superior to those of the composites with uncoated diamond particles. The experimental thermal conductivity is also theoretically analyzed to account for the thermal resistance at the diamond@B4C-Cu interface boundary.