Thermal conductivity of Cu/diamond composites prepared by a new pretreatment of diamond powder

Cu/diamond composites were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) after the surface pretreatment of the diamond powders, in which the diamond particles were mixed with copper powder and tungsten powder (carbide forming element W). The effects of the pretreatment temperature and the diamond particle size on the thermal conductivity of diamond/copper composites were investigated. It was found that when 300μm diamond particles and Cu–5wt.% W were mixed and preheated at 1313K, the composites has a relatively higher density and its thermal conductivity approaches 672W (mK)−1.