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Friction and Wear Properties of Copper Matrix Composites with CNTs/Cu Composite Foams as Reinforcing Skeletons

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Abstract

Copper matrix composites with carbon nanotubes/Cu composite foams as the reinforcing skeletons (CNTs/Cuf®Cu) were prepared by electrodeposition and spark plasma sintering. The microstructure and tribological properties of the composites were studied. The CNTs reinforcements with the content up to 0.283 vol% remained uniformly distributed in the skeleton zone and led to quite different structure and properties as compared to the pure copper zone. Significant reduction of the friction coefficient and wear rate was shown with CNTs reinforcements in the skeleton up to a certain content. The wear surface morphology was analyzed and the possible wear mechanism was discussed for the composites with such an inhomogeneous structure.

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Data Availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51861014, 52071169 & 51864029) and Science Research Project of Yunnan Province (Grant Nos. 202002AB080001 & 202001AT070082). The authors would like to thank Instrumental Analysis Center of KUST and Yunnan University for sample characterization.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 52071169, 51861014, & 51864029) and Science Research Project of Yunnan Province (Grant Nos. 202002AB080001 & 202001AT070082).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Congzhen Wang, Fengxian Li, Jingmei Tao, Jianhong Yi & Yichun Liu

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300000, China

    Zhong Wu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Xueping Gan

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Congzhen Wang

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  1. Congzhen Wang
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Correspondence to Yichun Liu.

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Wang, C., Wu, Z., Li, F. et al. Friction and Wear Properties of Copper Matrix Composites with CNTs/Cu Composite Foams as Reinforcing Skeletons. Tribol Lett 69, 120 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-021-01500-3

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