n this study, high-energy ball milling accompanied by compaction and sintering were employed for
manufacturing Cu-based hybrid nanocomposite reinforced by Al2O3 and GNPs. This hybrid nanocomposite is
proposed to meet the specification of heat sink applications, where excellent mechanical and thermal perfor-
mance is demanding. Different processing parameters were experimentally considered such as sintering tem-
perature and weight percentage of GNPs, 0, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1 wt %. The weight percentage of Al2O3 was
fixed at 10%. The results demonstrated that the mechanical and thermal performance of the fabricated nano-
composites were superior for nanocomposite containing 0.5% GNPs and sintered at 1000 ◦C. The hardness, the
thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) were improved by 21%, 16.7%, and 55.2%,
respectively, compared to composite without GNPs addition. The improved mechanical and thermal properties
were attributed to the low stacking fault energy, small crystallite size, high dislocation density, and low lattice
strain of the composite prepared at this composition. Moreover, the better dispersion of the nano-particles of
GNPs and Al2O3 inside the matrix helped for the strength and thermal conductivity improvement while main-
taining low CTE |
