Effect of Cr2AlC content on the properties of a Cu-Cr2AlC composite

Abstract

A Cu-Cr2AlC composite material is prepared by low-temperature hot-press sintering and the electrical properties of the composite material are discussed in this paper. The phase composition and microstructures of the synthesized composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Brinell hardness and conductivity were tested by Brinell and conductivity testing machines. The arc erosion properties and surface morphologies were tested by a vacuum electric breakdown testing machine and laser scanning confocal microscopy. The results show the Cu-Cr2AlC composite performs best with a Cr2AlC volume fraction of 20%, at this volume fraction, the hardness and conduction rate are 94.3 HB and 41.93%, respectively, and arc erosion ability of the composite has the best. It also has the lowest ablation crater depth, a small area, and a low breakdown-class ablation pit density. Keywords: Cu-Cr2AlC, Hot-press sintering, Hardness, Electrical conductivity, Arc ablation