Compaction and solid state sintering behavior of Cu-20%wt ZnO powders

In this research, compaction behavior and solid state sinterability of Cu-20wt.%ZnO powders were investigated. The compressibility of the powders was evaluated using Heckel and Panelli-Ambrosio equations. The powders were compacted uniaxially by 50, 100, 200 and 300 MPa at room temperature. The cold compacted powders were sintered at 850 and 1000◦C. The results showed that by increasing cold compaction pressure and sintering temperature the density of sintered compacts improved significantly. Additionally, it was found that the largest increase of density during sintering process was observed in the samples with relatively low green densities. The microstructural evaluation of the sintered samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrated that increasing the sintering temperature and cold compaction pressure resulted in decreasing the volume fraction of the pores and also their dimensions. However, it was confirmed that sintering temperature had more effective role on elimination of porosities rather than cold compaction pressure. The highest density was achieved for the samples which were compacted by 300 MPa and sintered at 1000◦C. K e y w o r d s: metal matrix composites (MMC), powder consolidation, sintering