Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Graphene Oxide Reinforced Copper–Tungsten Composites Produced via Ball Milling of Metal Flakes

Copper–tungsten (Cu-W) composites are widely used in high-power and -temperature electrical applications. The combination of these metals, however, leads to compromised physical and electrical properties. Herein, we produce Cu-W-graphene oxide (Cu-W-GO) composites to address this challenge. To ensure uniform density composites, the as-received metal powders were flattened into a flake morphology by ball milling and then mixed with up to 0.5 wt.% GO flakes. The green forms were processed using spark plasma sintering. The GO was found to be well-dispersed amongst the metallic phases in the final composite. The addition of GO reduced the relative density of the composites slightly (4.7% decrease in relative density at 0.5 wt% GO loading for the composites processed at 1000 °C). X-ray diffraction confirmed good phase purity and that no carbide phases were produced. GO was found to improve the mechanical properties of the Cu-W, with an optimal loading of 0.1 wt.% GO found for ultimate compression strength and strain to failure, and 0.3 wt.% optimal loading for the 0.2% offset yield strength. Significantly, the electrical conductivity increased by up to 25% with the addition of 0.1 wt.% GO but decreased with higher GO loadings.