Properties of W–Cu composite powder produced by a thermo-mechanical method

Abstract In order to improve the process of co-reduction of oxide powder, a new thermo-mechanical method was designed to produce high-dispersed W–Cu composite powder by high temperature oxidation, short time high-energy milling and reduction. The properties of W–Cu composite powder are analyzed in terms of oxygen contents, BET specific surface (BET-S), particle size distributions, morphology of final powder and their sintering behaviors. The results show that the oxygen content of W–Cu composite powder decreases with the increase of milling time, while the BET-S of final powder increases with the milling time. The distributions of final powder are more uniform after reduction at 630 °C than at 700 °C. After milling of the oxide powder for about 3–10 h, W–Cu composite powder with very low oxygen content can be achieved at the reduction temperature of 630 °C owning to the increasing of BET-S of W–Cu oxide powder. The particle size of W–Cu powder after reduction is lower than 0.5 μm and smaller than that reduced at 700 °C. After sintering at 1200 °C for 60 min, the relative density and thermal conductivity of final products (W–20Cu) can attain 99.5% and 210 W m −1 K −1 respectively.