Investigation on the properties of nanostructured Cu alloy prepared by mechanical milling and reactive hot-pressing

In this present research, the nanostructured Cu alloy was successfully prepared by mechanical milling (MM) and reactive hot-pressing (RHP). The effects of milling time and sintering temperature on density, microstructure, electrical conductivity and mechanical properties were investigated. The results indicated that the nanostructured Cu had a great influence on the properties of the alloys. The crystallite size of the alloy samples exhibited a minimum value of 12 nm after milling for 6 h (by XRD and TEM). Consequently, the greatly improved mechanical properties were accompanied with a little reduced electrical conductivity due to the grain refinement. The best mechanical properties were obtained by the specimen sintered at 600 °C and ball-milled for 5 h. It shows a better combination of electrical conductivity (71.86% IACS) and tensile strength (649 MPa) in spite of having a density 97.46% compared with the conventional copper and Cu-Fe alloy.