A Novel In Situ Method for Producing a Dispersion of a Ceramic Phase into Copper That Remains Stable at 0.9T M

We apply an in situ approach, whereby a polymer is incorporated into copper and evolves within the metal into the ceramic phase, to create a dispersion of hard particles in a metal. All constituents for the ceramic phase are contained within the organic polymer. The temperature for this polymer to ceramic conversion lies in the 1073 K to 1273 K (800 °C to 1000 °C) range. The process produces a nanoscale dispersion of the ceramic, which leads to high microhardness that remains unaltered at temperatures up to 1223 K (950 °C) (0.9T _M). Apparently, the introduction of the ceramic phase leads to the retention of copper crystallite size of a few hundred nm, despite exposure to heat treatments at these very high temperatures. We call these materials polymer-derived metal-matrix composites.