Copper Nanoparticle/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Composite Films with High Electrical Conductivity and Fatigue Resistance Fabricated via Flash Light Sintering

Abstract

In this work, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were employed to improve the conductivity and fatigue resistance of flash light sintered copper nanoparticle (NP) ink films. The effect of CNT weight fraction on the flash light sintering and the fatigue characteristics of Cu NP/CNT composite films were investigated. The effect of carbon nanotube length was also studied with regard to enhancing the conductivity and fatigue resistance of flash light sintered Cu NP/CNT composite films. The flash light irradiation energy was optimized to obtain high conductivity Cu NP/CNT composite films. Cu NP/CNT composite films fabricated via optimized flash light irradiation had the lowest resistivity (7.86 mu Omega center dot cm), which was only 4.6 times higher than that of bulk Cu films (1.68 mu Omega center dot cm). It was also demonstrated that Cu NP/CNT composite films had better durability and environmental stability than those of Cu NPs only.