An improvement of current driving and electrical conductivity properties in covetics

Authors: MESUT ATASOYU, EMİN ARGUN ORAL, MEHMET ERTUĞRUL

Abstract: Compared to pure Cu, Cu lattice retaining carbon atoms, called a covetic material, can have better electrical conductivity. Furthermore, the incorporation of carbon nanostructures into Cu-alloys could improve the mechanical properties of Cu-alloys. In the simulation study, we investigated Joule heating due to applied DC current on molten Cu metal concerning how to improve current density of covetic materials. In addition, we will discuss interfacial effects on covetic-metal electrodes to meet better current driving performance. The covetic composite excited at one electrode (width = 10 nm) has a higher current drive capability as a value of 3.54 $10^{7}$ $A /m^{2}$, for 1000 A current at a temperature of 1073.2 K, this value is a constant while temperature is changing up to 1573.2 K. We measured the conductivity of the proposed covetic materials at various carbon nanotube densities at room temperature. Experimental results show the lowest resistivity value accomplished after mixing and temperature annealing as a value of 1.78 $10^{-8}$ $\Omega.m$, where the covetic sample has 1.27$\%$ carbon nanotube density, and that the electrical conductivity is superior to that of Cu-carbon nanotube composites previously reported.

Keywords: Covetics, current driving capacity, carbon nanotubes

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