Copper has widespread use as engineering material, because of its structural and
functional properties, notably high thermal and electrical conductivity. A major drawback of this
base metal and its alloys is a relatively low hardness. This precludes its utilization in applications in
which both high conductivity and high strength/hardness are needed, e.g. in injection moulds for
plastics. Nanostructured metals and nanocomposites are ways to address the low hardness problem,
provided the nanostructured material is thermally stable during processing and service. In the
present research, composite powders, with 5 to 30 at % nanodiamond, were consolidated into bulk
samples. The copper-nanodiamond composite powders were vacuum encapsulated and extruded at
600°C. A significant proportion of the initial hardness in the powders is retained after extrusion.
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of the extruded material indicates good bonding between
the nanodiamond particles and the copper matrix. Raman spectroscopy on the consolidated samples
evidences the presence of graphite, possibly due to partial disintegration of ultradisperse
nanodiamond agglomerates.