Preparation and Characterization of Cu Coated SiC Composite Powders by in-situ Chemical Deposition

A facile one-step in-situ chemical deposition method was introduced to synthesize Cu-Coated SiC composite powders,using [Cu(NH3)4]2+ ions as copper source and N2H4.H2O as reductant,respectively.Scanning electronic microscope(SEM),X-Ray diffraction(XRD),Fourier transform infrared spectroscope(FT-IR) and Zeta potential were used to investigate the structure,morphology and composition of the prepared core/shell composite powders.The corresponding formation mechanism was proposed based on the comparative study.It is revealed that the SiO2 film on the surfaces of pre-oxidated SiC particles can effectively enhance the adsorption of [Cu(NH3)4]2+ ions toward the negatively charged surface,which is favorable to the following in-situ reduction by N2H4.H2O around SiC particles.Nearly continuous Cu coating can be formed by changing the reaction process.The concentration of [Cu(NH3)4]2+ ions and reaction temperature affect the reaction rate and coating structure.The process parameters are optimized to obtain the best coating structure with [Cu(NH3)4]2+ ions concentration of 0.2 mol/L and reaction temperature of 70℃,respectively.