New composite materials prepared by high-pressure infiltration of superionic glasses into diamond powder compacts.

Glassy-crystalline composites have been prepared by infiltrating highly conducting silver vanadate glasses into diamond powder compacts. The process of infiltration was carried out at a high isostatic pressure (from 1.5 to 8 GPa) and temperatures up to 800 °C. The resulting composites have conductivities comparable to those of glasses used for infiltration, but exhibit a wider range of thermal stability (up to 300 °C) than glasses. Additionally, they have much better mechanical properties, in particular, being less brittle and exhibiting higher microhardness than glasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]