To reduce production cost and inhibit the aggregation of graphene, graphene oxide and copper nitrate solution were used as raw materials in the paper. Cu particles were introduced to the graphene nanosheets by in-situ chemical reduction method in the hydrazine hydrate and sodium hydroxide solution, and the copper matrix composite reinforced with Cu-doped graphene nanosheets were fabricated by powder metallurgy. The synthesized Cu-doped graphene was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The relative density, hardness, electrical conductivity and tensile strength of the copper matrix composite reinforced with Cudoped graphene were measured as well. The results show that copper ions and graphene oxide can be effectively reduced by hydrazine hydrate simultaneously. Most of oxygen functional groups on the Cu-doped graphene sheets can be removed dramatically, and Cu-doped graphene inhibit the graphene aggregation effectively. Within the experimental range, the copper matrix composites have good comprehensive properties with 0.5 wt% Cu-doped graphene. The tensile strength and hardness are 221 MPa and 81.6 HV, respectively, corresponding to an increase of 23% and 59% compared to that of pure Cu, and the electrical conductivity reaches up to 93.96% IACS. However, excessive addition of Cu-doped graphene is not beneficial for the improvement on the hardness and electrical conductivity of copper matrix composite.

The flaw of low dispersibility in the metal matrix brought on by graphene's full crystal structure can be improved by the application of ion beam radiation to the surface of the material. Copper atoms are uniformly dispersed on the modified graphene oxide ( GOM) surface after being irradiated to a copper ion beam, and during the sputtering modification, the valence state of copper is changed, resulting in the formation of a new CuO phase on the graphene oxide (GO) surface. Therefore, after copper ion beam irradiation of graphene, the interfacial adhesion between GOM and copper matrix is enhanced, and the wear resistance is significantly improved. When the GOM content is low, it can withstand most of the load during the friction and wear test, which reduces the wear of the copper matrix and the occurrence of fatigue cracks at the interface of the composite material.

Carbon short fibers/copper composites with different carbon short fiber contents up to 15 wt.% as reinforcements are prepared to investigate the influence of the carbon short fiber surface coating on the microstructure, density, and electrical properties of the carbon short fibers/copper composites. The carbon short fibers were surface treated by acid functionalization followed by alkaline treatment before the coating process. It was observed from the results that coated type copper nanoparticles were deposited on the surface of the carbon short fibers. The surface treated carbon short fibers were coated by copper using the electroless deposition technique in the alkaline tartrate bath by using formaldehyde as a reducing agent of the copper sulfate. The produced coated carbon short fibers/copper composite powders were cold compacted at 600 MPa, and then sintered at 875 °C for 2 h under (hydrogen/nitrogen 1:3) atmosphere. A reference copper sample was also prepared by the same method to compare between the properties of pure copper and the carbon short fibers/copper composites. The phase composition, morphology, and microstructure of the prepared carbon short fibers/copper composite powders as well as the corresponding carbon short fibers/copper composites were investigated using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with an energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), respectively. The density and the electrical resistivity of the sintered composites were measured. It was observed from the results that the density was decreased; however, the electrical resistivity was increased by increasing the carbon short fibers wt.%.

Recently, the amount of heat generated in devices has been increasing due to the miniaturization and high performance of electronic devices. Cu-graphite composites are emerging as a heat sink material, but its capability is limited due to the weak interface bonding between the two materials. To overcome these problems, Cu nanoparticles were deposited on a graphite flake surface by electroless plating to increase the interfacial bonds between Cu and graphite, and then composite materials were consolidated by spark plasma sintering. The Cu content was varied from 20 wt.% to 60 wt.% to investigate the effect of the graphite fraction and microstructure on thermal conductivity of the Cu-graphite composites. The highest thermal conductivity of 692 W m−1K−1 was achieved for the composite with 40 wt.% Cu. The measured coefficients of thermal expansion of the composites ranged from 5.36 × 10−6 to 3.06 × 10−6 K−1. We anticipate that the Cu-graphite composites have remarkable potential for heat dissipation applications in energy storage and electronics owing to their high thermal conductivity and low thermal expansion coefficient.

In the present study, we develop a conductive copper/carbon nanomaterial additive and investigate the effects of the morphologies of the carbon nanomaterials on the conductivities of composites containing the additive. The conductive additive is prepared by mechanically milling copper powder with carbon nanomaterials, namely, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and/or few-layer graphene (FLG). During the milling process, the carbon nanomaterials are partially embedded in the surfaces of the copper powder, such that electrically conductive pathways are formed when the powder is used in an epoxy-based composite. The conductivities of the composites increase with the volume of the carbon nanomaterial. For a constant volume of carbon nanomaterial, the FLG is observed to provide more conducting pathways than the MWCNTs, although the optimum conductivity is obtained when a mixture of FLG and MWCNTs is used.

The conductive polymer composites recently became increasingly to many fields of industry due to their electrical properties. To understand these properties of composites, electrical properties were measured and were studied relatively. Electrical conductivity measurements showed percolation phenomena. Percolation theories are frequently applied to describe the insulator-to-conductor transitions in composites made of a conductive filler and an insulating matrix. It has been showed both experimentally and theoretically that the percolation threshold strongly depends on the aspect ratio of filler particles. The critical concentration of percolation formed is defined as the percolation threshold. This paper was to study epoxy resin filled with copper. The experiment was made with vehicle such as epoxy resin replenished with copper powder and the study about their practical use was performed in order to apply to electric and electronic industry as well as general field. The volume specific resistance of epoxy resin composites was 3.065~13.325 in using copper powder. The weight loss of conductive composites happened from 350℃~470℃.

For microelectronic circuits, the main type of failure is thermal fatigue. Therefore, the search for matched coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of packaging materials in combination with a high thermal conductivity is the main task for developments of heat sink materials electronics, and good mechanical properties are also required. The aim of this work is to develop copper matrix composites reinforced with carbon nanofibers to meet these requirements. In this paper, a technology for obtaining a homogeneous mixture of copper and nanofibers will be presented and the microstructure and properties of consolidated samples will be discussed.