Investigation on the microstructure and properties of Cu-Cr alloy prepared by in-situ synthesis method

In this work, Cu-Cr alloys have been prepared by reducing reaction of Cr2O3 with Cu-Mg melt. The thermodynamic analysis of the reaction system and the microstructures of alloys were carried out. The results show that Cu-Cr alloys with around 0.57 wt%∼4.92 wt% chromium content can be prepared by in-situ synthesis technique. And Cr particles with anomalies forms have been observed, which illustrated that part of Cr particles is not formed by classical nucleation and crystal growth. In addition, the influence of thermomechanical treatments on microstructure and properties of the Cu-Cr alloy was also discussed. The results show that cold rolled before aging can accelerate the speed of decomposition of Cr from supersaturated matrix and finer precipitates are obtained in CR-80%-A sample than STA sample. Moreover, the good combination of the properties, such as microhardeness of around 171HV, tensile strength of around 475 MPa as well as electrical conductivity of around 86.2% IACS were obtained in CR-80%-A sample.