Thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of soda-lime glass with interfacially connected Au layer fabricated via sputtering and spark plasma sintering

Abstract

Glass is used for various substrates, but its thermal conductivity and mechanical properties are lower than ceramics. In this paper, we propose a new process for fabricating heat conduction paths using a small amount of metal. Au was coated on soda-lime glass powder via ion sputtering for 0, 20, 40, and 60 min, and the resultant powders were sintered via spark plasma sintering. The Au nanolayers precipitated between the soda-lime glass domains and were well connected to each other. Their thickness increased with increasing sputtering time. The thermal conductivity was enhanced by 10% with a small amount of precipitation less than 0.28 vol%, mainly resulting from the well-connected highly conductive Au nanolayers. The hardness and toughness were hardly affected by the precipitation of Au.