Abstract
A CuTeCrY alloy prepared by homogenising annealing, hot extrusion, solution treatment, cold drawing, and a heat ageing treatment has tensile strength and electrical conductivity of 430 MPa and 78.9% IACS, respectively. Electron microscopy analyses show that a metastable CrCu2Te phase in the solid solution alloy is eliminated by the ageing treatment, and a 3–5 nm granular bcc-Cr phase becomes distributed in the matrix. This nanometre Cr second phase is the main contributor to the strengthening of the alloy whereas the second-phase strengthening effects of micrometre Cr and Te phases are weak.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr Bing Ye and Dr Yang Bai for his help during the course of experiments. In addition, we thank Dr Jiang, Dr Cao and Dr Wang from Ningbo Branch of Chinese Academy of Ordnance Science, respectively.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).