Low temperature microwave sintering of Cu_0.7Ni_0.3(Al₂O₃) nanocomposite

Abstract

In the present study, the effects of microwave sintering (MWS) on microstructural, tribological and corrosion properties of Cu 0.7 Ni 0.3 -5 wt-% Al 2 O 3 nanocomposites were evaluated. The Cu and Ni powders along with Al 2 O 3 nanopowder were mixed in a high-energy ball mill. The XRD patterns indicating formation of Cu 0.7 Ni 0.3 solid solution alloy during mechanical alloying process. The mechanically alloyed powders were compacted by coldpress, and sintered samples at 200 and 300°C for 30 and 60 min by means of conventional sintering and MWS. Tribological properties of sintered samples were evaluated by ball-on-disk wear test. For MWS, results indicate that increasing the MWS temperature decreased the wear rate about 30%. Corrosion behaviour of nanocomposites were studied by cyclic potentiodynamic polarisation in 1 M NaOH solution and was found that corrosion current density of microwave sintered sample was decreased almost 35 times of that for conventional sintered sample.

Effects of Cu particle size on CuSnFeNi/diamond composite processed using hybrid microwave sintering

“…[27] observed that the frequency of microwave sintering affected the preparation of hydroxyapatite. As is shown in [20], there was a reflection effect of microwave radiation on sintered bulk metals at the room temperature. To avoid the reflection effect of microwave radiation, the hybrid microwave sintering was introduced to produce the metal and ceramic materials rather than to sinter at the high temperature or in powder forms [28–31].…”

“…The microwave method can significantly reduce energy consumption and save sintering time [15,16]. It has been widely used in the metal, ceramic material fields [17][18][19][20]. In addition, the microwave sintering method and diamond particle size can increase the performance of metal/diamond composites [21][22][23].…”