EFFECT OF ULTRASONIC-ASSISTED COMPACTION ON DENSITY AND HARDNESS OF Cu-CNT NANOCOMPOSITES SINTERED BY CAPSULE-FREE HOT ISOSTATIC PRESSING

Cu-CNTs composites were prepared with and without ultrasonic-assisted compaction in this work. The samples were sintered by capsule-free hot isostatic pressing at 920 o C and 50 MPa Ar gases. The results showed that the higher relative density and Brinell hardness were obtained for ultrasonic assisted compaction samples (at the same CNT content). For both cases, the highest hardness values was achieved at 0.5 wt.% CNT (49.2 HB and 45.8 HB for specimens with and without the ultrasonic-assisted compaction, respectively). The hardness was then decreased as the CNT content increased. The higher hardness values were resulted from higher densification of the sintered samples with ultrasonic-assisted compaction compared to the others.