Friction and wear behavior of copper/graphite/Ti2SnC composites fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS)

Copper/graphite/Ti2SnC composites were prepared using spark plasma sintering with copper-coated graphite powder, Ti2SnC powder, and copper powder as raw materials. The effect of sintering temperatures (800, 850, 900, and 950 °C) on the microstructure, relative density, hardness, resistivity, and tribological properties of the composites was studied in this paper. The results show that Cu and Ti2SnC demonstrate obvious inter-diffusion during sintering and become stronger with an increase in the sintering temperature, and the phase change process of the Cu matrix was in the order: Cu → Cu5.6Sn → Cu41Sn11 → Cu3Sn. The relative density, hardness, friction coefficient, and the wear rate of the composites were the best when the sintering temperature was 900 °C, and their values were 97.21%, 67.68 HSD, 0.25, and 3.72 × 10−6 mm3/(N·m), respectively, whereas the resistivity of the composites was the best when the sintering temperature was 950 °C, and it was 6.116 × 10−7 Ω m. •Copper/Graphite/Ti2SnC composites were prepared by spark plasma sintering.•The composites samples were sintered at different temperatures (800, 850, 900, 950 °C).•The tribological properties, hardness, and resistivity of the composites samples were investigated.•The composites samples were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDS.