Electrochemical Study of Spark Plasma-Sintered Copper Reinforced with Ni/SiC Micron-Sized Particles for Electrical Applications

In the research study, incorporation of Cu with hard SiC and Ni micron-sized particles was applied in the fabrication of a multifunctional copper-based metal matrix composite using spark plasma sintering. The developed spark plasma-sintered Cu–xNi and Cu–xNi–xSiC composite charateristics were studied by conducting morphological analysis, electrochemical, microhardness, and densification tests. Analytical equipments used include scanning electron microscopy, equipped elemental dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, and Vickers hardness tester. Electrochemical characterizations using potentiodynamic polarization for the electrochemical stability of the sintered composite in 0.5 M H2SO4 was also carried out. 96% densification and 90.20% corrosion resistance were obtained. The Cu–Ni composite showed an increase in corrosion resistance as a result of Ni addition in H2SO4 environment, while Cu–xNi–xSiC composite showed a slight decrease in corrosion resistance with excess SiC. It can be inferred that Cu–xNi and Cu–NixSiC composites improves the hardness values and corrosion resistance for electrical application when applied.