| Popis: |
Ultra-Conductive Copper (UCC) has an enormous potential to disrupt the existing Electrical and Electronic Systems. Recent studies on Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) showed the ballistic conductance of electricity. Ultra-conductivity in metals is achieved by infusing CNTs into the metal matrix of the base metal. Copper is by far the most used metal for electrical and electronic applications. Researchers were able to demonstrate Ultra-conductivity in copper at micro and millimeter length sections using various fabricating methods by embedding CNTs in the Copper matrix. Although multiple methods promised the possibility of producing copper-based nanocomposites with gains in electrical conductivity, thus far, the scaling up of these results has been a challenge. The current study is the successor of the previous studies at Cleveland State University where wire drawing is used for producing UCC wire. Wire drawing is a pull method of reducing the cross-sectional area of the material. This method is effective while drawing a homogenous material. Nanocomposites are not a homogenous material given that the CNTs are randomly distributed in the metal matrix. Therefore, using a wire drawing method proved ineffective as the wire tends to break at irregular intervals. The fabrication method pursued in this study uses hot-pressing of the copper powder with the CNT-precursor material, followed by rolling the hot-pressed billets to produce the UCC wire. Cu/CNT billets of 1/10% (w/w), 1/15% (w/w), and 1/20% (w/w) are hot-pressed, and electrical conductivity results of these samples are compared to the hot-pressed copper billet with no infused CNTs. Rolling is a push method of reducing the cross-sectional area of the material which is more forgiving in handling non-uniform materials with much-reduced potential for wire breakage. This work presents the results of using the rolling method and concludes the project at Cleveland State University with remarks on the feasibility of producing UCC wire by traditional fabrication methods and considerations for future work in this field. |
