Electrochemical Study of Spark Plasma-Sintered Copper Reinforced with Ni/SiC Micron-Sized Particles for Electrical Applications

摘要

In the research study, incorporation of Cu with hard SiC and Ni micron-sized particles was applied in the fabrication of a multifunctional copper-based metal matrix composite using spark plasma sintering. The developed spark plasma-sintered Cu-xNi and Cu-xNi-xSiC composite charateristics were studied by conducting morphological analysis, electrochemical, microhardness, and densification tests. Analytical equipments used include scanning electron microscopy, equipped elemental dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and Vickers hardness tester. Electrochemical characterizations using potentiodynamic polarization for the electrochemical stability of the sintered composite in 0.5M H2SO4 was also carried out. 96% densification and 90.20% corrosion resistance were obtained. The Cu-Ni composite showed an increase in corrosion resistance as a result ofNi addition in H2SO4 environment, while Cu-xNi-xSiC composite showed a slight decrease in corrosion resistance with excess SiC. It can be inferred that Cu-xNi and Cu-NixSiC composites improves the hardness values and corrosion resistance for electrical application when applied.