Electrodeposition of carbon nanotubes-Cu composite for microelectrical elements applications

In this paper, we present the electrodeposition of copper (Cu) composites with high contents of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and evaluate the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of the composites. A novel electroplating method is developed for the electrodeposition of the CNTs-Cu composite with two kinds of multi-walled CNTs (MWCNTs), thermally-annealed at 1200°C and 2600°C. The weight fractions of the CNTs in the composites are 5.0 wt%, and 2.8 wt%, and the Young's moduli of the composites are approximately 1.2 times and 1.1 times greater than that of the Cu film, respectively. The composites exhibit 26% and 16% lower coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) than that of the Cu, and possess the same electrical resistivity with the Cu. This results show that the CNTs-Cu composite is ideally suited for microelectrical elements applications.