View article

With the aim of obtaining materials with high thermal conductivities for solid state thermal management applications, metal-matrix composites were produced by reinforcing aluminum and aluminum–silicon with diamond single crystals via two different liquid metal infiltration techniques – gas pressure infiltration and mechanically assisted infiltration (squeeze casting). The obtained composites exhibited thermal conductivities as high as 670W/mK, but also as low as 130W/mK. The large variation in the thermal conductivities can be related to the microstructural characteristics of the interface between diamond and the metal-matrix. On fracture surfaces of the composites, it was found that preferential adhesion between aluminum and diamond occurs on the {100} faces of diamond. Chemical and electrochemical etching treatments of the composites along with TEM observations of interfacial cross-sections suggest that …