Enhanced thermal conductivity and flexural properties in squeeze casted diamond/aluminum composites by processing control

Highlights: • Optimized squeeze casting was used to overcome the difficulty of diamond–Al bonding. • Sound interfacial bonding with excellent properties was produced. • Entire adhesion between uncoated diamond particles and pure Al was firstly produced. • A bending strength of 220 MPa, enhanced by 120%, was achieved by optimized process. • The TC of the composite with optimized squeeze casting was enhanced by 90%. - Abstract: A practical and feasible approach is demonstrated to dramatically enhance thermal conductivity of the diamond particle reinforced aluminum matrix composites by means of optimized squeeze casting for fabricating metal–matrix composites with good adhesive interface as well as minimum thermal boundary resistance. By controlling the processing route, the architecture of diamond–aluminum interface was tuned, and therefore the thermal conductivity was amazingly found to be enhanced by 89% (from 321 to 606 W/(m·K)), which was the highest value reported in the scientific literature to date for diamond/aluminum composites using squeeze-casting method. Meanwhile, the bending strength was increased by 124% (from 98 to 220 MPa). This study offers an easily scalable and low-cost route to construct a wide range of particle reinforced metal matrix composites with significant enhancement of thermal performance.