Plasma Dynamic Synthesis of Dispersed Cu/SiC Composites with a Controlled Phase Composition

Obtaining bulk copper-based composite materials with improved physical and mechanical properties often requires pre-treatment of the initial raw materials. Especially it concerns metal matrix composites (MMC) containing copper as a matrix and silicon carbide as a reinforcing component. However, the final properties of Cu/SiC MMC depend on successful solving the problem of silicon solubility in liquid-phase copper during the sintering process. In this work, we demonstrate the possibility of high-energy treatment of copper and silicon carbide by the plasma dynamic method to obtain a pre-activated charge for further sintering. Analytical studies by X-ray diffractomtery (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods testify to the possibility of obtaining highly dispersed composite Cu/SiC materials of different phase and grain size composition depending on the synthesis conditions. The application of polymodal Cu/SiC powders pre-activated by the plasma dynamic method as a charge is established to ensure producing bulk samples by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) method and allow increasing the relative density by ~ 5%–10% and the hardness of the final products by more than 30% compared with pure copper samples produced by the same method. Graphical Abstract