Effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and thermal conductivity of Al/diamond composites prepared by spark plasma sintering

Spark plasma sintering was used to fabricate Al/diamond composites.The effect of sintering temperature on the microstructure and thermal conductivity(TC) of the composites was investigated with the combination of experimental results and theoretical analysis.The composite sintered at 550℃shows high relative density and strong interfacial bonding,whereas the composites sintered at lower(520CC) and higher(580-600℃) temperatures indicate no interfacial bonding and poor interfacial bonding,respectively.High relative density and strong interfacial bonding can maximize the thermal conductivity of Al/diamond composites,and taking both effects of particle shape and inhomogeneous interfacial thermal conductance into consideration can give a fairly good prediction of composites’ thermal conduction properties.