Fabrication of Ceramic Composites Based on CuO-ZnO

Abstract

CuO-ZnO ceramic composites have been obtained by pressing conventional method. The composite materials are CuO and ZnO powders with ratio in mass composition of CuO and ZnO are 75%:25%, 80%:20%, 85%:15%, 90%:10% and 95%:5%. The samples were made by three steps. The first step, CuO and ZnO powders are sieved with particle size of 100 mesh. Then, both of powders are mixed until homogeneous for 5 minutes with dry mixing method. The second step, the homogeneous powders are fabricated with pressure at 300 MPa for 10 minutes to form a pellet. The last step, the pellet was burned by furnace at temperatures 800°C, 900°C and 1000°C for 3 hours. Each sample that has been burned was characterized by physical properties (density), morphological analysis (SEM), mechanical properties (compressive strength and hardness) and crystalline structural analysis (XRD). The results of characterization show that optimum ratio in mass composition of CuO and ZnO is 95%:5% at 1000°C temperature. It has the highest density of 9.205 g/cm 3 while the highest of compressive strength is 218.799 MPa, the highest hardness is 1816.920 MPa and morphological structures are evenly distributed.