Fabrication and thermal properties of carbon nanotube/nickel composite by spark plasma sintering method

Multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNT) materials are attractive because they possess excellent thermal conductivity and mechanical properties. However, few reports exist that focus on improving the thermal conductivity of MWNT by combining it with a metal matrix. Thus to improve the thermal conductivity, a nickel-matrix composite with MWNT was prepared by slurry mixing process using ethanol as a solvent. Using spark plasma sintering (SPS), MWNT/Nickel nanocomposites were fabricated and the fabrication conditions were investigated. The sintered relative densities of the composites containing up to 5 vol% of MWNT were above 99%. The thermal and electrical behaviors of the MWNT/Nickel composites were determined using the laser flash and van der Pauw methods, respectively, and were found to be anisotropic. The thermal conductivity was found to increase by 10% for the composition with 3 vol% MWNT.