Graphitic Materials Hot-Worked with a Dispersed Liquid Carbide: Thermal and Electrical Conductivity

Graphitic materials produced by hot-working with a dispersed liquid-carbide phase (termed HWLC graphites) have high thermal and electrical conductivities compared with hot-worked or conventional graphites prepared without additives. Thermal diffusivity and electrical conductivity were measured at room temperature on two HWLC materials containing either molybdenum carbide or zirconium carbide. This process of liquid-phase sintering with compressive deformation imposes a strong preferred orientation on the predominantly graphitic material, and the resulting thermal conductivity in the preferred direction of the layer planes is greater than the thermal conductivity of copper or silver. Thus, liquid-phase stress sintering induces in graphitic materials an essentially new microstructure that provides a means of realizing the inherent high thermal conductivity of the graphite layer plane in a massive body.