Enhancing the electrical and mechanical properties of copper by introducing nanocarbon derived from polydopamine coating

Abstract Introduction of nanocarbon into metal matrices has shown promising improvement over the base metals. In this study, we examine the effect of a new nanocarbon phase – carbonized polydopamine (cPDA) – on the electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of sintered copper. The composite samples exhibited better electrical conductivity, thermal diffusivity, hardness and wear resistance. Composites with a low cPDA concentration (0.4 vol%) possessed the best electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, while composite samples with higher cPDA concentrations (3.5 vol %) showed significantly enhanced thermal diffusivity as high as 104.5 mm 2 /s that is 63.5% higher than the sintered Cu sample.