Fabrication and Properties of W-Cu Functionally Graded Material by Tape-Casting

In this paper, the W-Cu functionally graded material (FGM) was prepared by using the non-aqueous tape-casting technique combined with vacuum hot-pressing sintering. The graded composite material with high density, uniform transition and graded component was designed by 7 layers with the copper content range from 40 to 100 wt. %. Then the structures and properties of the composite were characterized. The scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) results for the W-Cu graded material showed that the interface between different layers was of high smoothness and parallel. The SEM-EDS results of cross section show that the W and Cu content changed gradually along the laminating direction after sintering. The equivalent electrical conductivity and the equivalent thermal conductivity of the W-Cu graded material were 0.3976×108 S/m and 323.5 W/(m·K), respectively, which were much higher than that of the W-40 wt. % Cu homogeneous composite. The Vickers hardness of the high tungsten content surface and the high copper surface were 163 HV and 80 HV, respectively, which were same with that of the homogeneous material.