The synergistic effect of Al-B-C master alloy to improve conductivity and strength of 1070 alloy

The aluminum alloys with high strength and increased electrical conductivity are highly desirable for the application in power transmission lines. However, high strength and good electrical conductivity are mutually exclusive in metallic materials. In this work, a new strengthen method of 1070 EC-grade aluminum has been proposed. A recently reported particle, Al3BC, synthesized as the main reaction product in Al-8B-2C master alloy was chosen as the strengthening phase. The influence of Al-8B-2C master alloy on the properties, including the tensile strength, elongation and electrical conductivity of 1070 alloy is investigated. The results revealed that not only the ultimate tensile strength at room temperature (UTS25°C) of 1070 alloy is improved with the addition of the Al-8B-2C master alloy, the electrical conductivity of 1070 is also improved, which is as high as 62.06% IACS at 3 wt.% addition level. It is supposed that the strengthening of the alloy can be assumed to the mutual contribution of dispersion strengthening and fine-grain strengthening of Al3BC. Meanwhile, the tiny enhanced resistance due to the aluminum rich phase Al3BC particles can be offset by AlB2 particles in Al-8B-2C master alloy because of the inoculation of transition elements.