Optimized thermal conductivity of diamond/Cu composite prepared with tungsten-copper-coated diamond particles by vacuum sintering technique

Diamond/Cu composites with excellent thermal performance were fabricated by a novel method which coated diamond particles with tungsten as the inner layer through salt-bath plating and then deposited copper as the outer layer through electroless plating. After ultra-high cold pressing and vacuum sintering, these double-layer particles directly formed diamond/Cu composites without addition of copper powders. The thermal conductivity of 60 vol.% diamond/Cu composite reached maximum at 661 W m(-1) K-1. The outstanding performance can be ascribed to strong interface bonding in the double layer particles and uniform distribution of diamond particles in the composites when electroless plating was used to replace copper powder addition. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.