Electrical conductivity and thermal properties of spark plasma sintered Al2O3-SiC-CNT hybrid nanocomposites

In this study, we report the electrical conductivity and thermal properties of Al2O3-SiC-CNT hybrid nanocomposites processed via ball milling (BM) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The initial powders and consolidated samples were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively. A multifunction calibrator and a high-resolution digital multimeter were used to measure the electrical conductivity. The thermal properties were measured using a thermal constants analyser. The SiC and CNT-reinforced alumina hybrid nanocomposites exhibited a significant increase in their room-temperature electrical conductivity, which made them suitable for electrical discharge machining. The Al2O3-5SiC-2CNTs had a high electrical conductivity value of 8.85 S/m compared to a low value of 6.87×10−10 S/m for the monolithic alumina. The addition of SiC and CNTs to alumina decreased its room-temperature thermal properties. The increase in temperature resulted in a decrease in the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity but an increase in the specific heat of the monolithic alumina and the hybrid nanocomposites. These properties were correlated with the microstructure, and possible transport mechanisms were discussed.