Optimized thermal conductivity of diamond/Cu composite prepared with tungsten-copper-coated diamond particles by vacuum sintering technique

Diamond/Cu composites with excellent thermal performance were fabricated by a novel method which coated diamond particles with tungsten as the inner layer through salt-bath plating and then deposited copper as the outer layer through electroless plating. After ultra-high cold pressing and vacuum sintering, these double-layer particles directly formed diamond/Cu composites without addition of copper powders. The thermal conductivity of 60 vol.% diamond/Cu composite reached maximum at 661 W m-1 K-1. The outstanding performance can be ascribed to strong interface bonding in the double-layer particles and uniform distribution of diamond particles in the composites when electroless plating was used to replace copper powder addition.