Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites: Metal and Ceramic ...

70j 2 Carbon Nanotube–Metal Nanocomposites
Figure 2.23 (a) Appearances of spark plasma sintered copper,
Cu/5 vol% MWNT and Cu/10 vol% MWNT nanocomposites;
(b) SEM image of etched Cu/5 vol% MWNT nanocomposite
showing homogeneous distribution of CNTs within copper matrix.
Reproduced with permission from [87]. Copyright Ó (2007)
Elsevier.
the Cu/10 vol% MWNT composite powder even after reduction of CuO matrix
in hydrogen.
Xu et al. also fabricated Cu/MWNT spherical powders by mixing Cu ions
with functionalized MWNTs at the molecular level [90]. They managed to produce
Cu/MWNT composite powders having much finer sizes of 200–300 nm.
The MWNTs were dispersed ultrasonically in a gelatin solution followed by adding
Figure 2.24 Schematic diagrams showing (a) oxygen atoms in
CuO matrix and functionalized MWNTs; (b) residual oxygen
atoms at the nanotube-Cu interface after reduction process; (c)
homogeneous dispersion of nanotubes in Cu matrix after
consolidation. Reproduced with permission from [89]. Copyright
Ó (2008) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH.