Effect of graphite mesh sizes on thermo-mechanical properties of Cu-GF composites

Abstract In this paper, copper-graphite composites were prepared through powder metallurgy technique (hot press sintering) in order to figure out the impact of graphite by varying concentrations and mesh sizes. SEM and XRD were performed to analyze the microstructure and phase analysis. Hardness and thermal conductivity of the composites were measured to check the effect of graphite concentrations and varying mesh size on copper-graphite composites. At low concentration 3 wt% graphite, the hardness values were significantly increased and excellent result was obtained at 3500 μm mesh size (65 HV), while for copper the value was 40 H V. The best thermal conductivity horizontal to vertical ratio difference (2.71) was obtained at 5 wt% 3500 μm mesh size much higher than pure copper (0.93).