Self-lubricating Ti3SiC2 strengthening Cu composites with electrical conductivity and wear resistance trade off

Introduction of hard particles into the soft copper is an effective method to strengthen copper and improve its wear resistance, while it normally sacrifices the electrical conductivity. The type and content of the addition phase have great influence on the electrical conductivity and wear resistance trade off. Herein, we introduced self-lubricating and conductive Ti3SiC2 particles into the soft copper, and self-lubricating Ti3SiC2/Cu composites were fabricated by vacuum hot pressing sintering technique. It was found that dense composites with homogeneous Ti3SiC2 distribution was obtained when addition content of Ti3SiC2 was relatively low, less than 20 vol% Ti3SiC2 additions, while the composite became porous after larger content, especially over 40 vol%. Introduction of Ti3SiC2 significantly enhanced the wear resistance without obviously sacrificing of electrical conductivity. The composites with 20 vol% Ti3SiC2 content had the lowest wear rate of 3.135 × 10−5 mm3 N−1 m−1 with conductive 63% IACS. Self-lubricating film was detected on the friction surface, which sharply reduced the composite’s wear rates. At the same time, hardness of the composite was obviously increased by 98% compared with copper, up to 121 HV, which was beneficial to the improvement of wear resistance. Introduction of Ti3SiC2 has been demonstrated to obviously strengthen copper with electrical conductivity and wear resistance trade off.