W-Cu composites with excellent comprehensive properties

Excellent mechanical and physical properties are usually mutually exclusive in W-Cu composites, which makes it challenging to achieve outstanding comprehensive performance. In the present work, improved copper connectivity and uniformly dispersed ultrafine tungsten particles were achieved in the ultrafine grained (UFG) W-Cu composites. The as-prepared UFG W-Cu composites exhibited enhanced combination of hardness, compressive strength and electrical conductivity compared with those reported in the literature. Specifically, the UFG W-30Cu composite showed a compressive strength over 1200 MPa (2.1 times that of the coarse grained counterpart), a hardness of 357 HV and an electrical conductivity of 48.6%IACS. The strengthening mechanisms of the presented W-Cu composites were quantitatively discussed in terms of grain refinement, stress transfer and dislocations strengthening. This study provides a novel approach for the synthesis of W-Cu composites with excellent comprehensive properties.