Improving tensile property and thermal stability of the Cu-Ta alloy by alloying with Cr.

The wide applications of Cu-10Ta (at%) composite are limited due to the high cost of Ta element (24 wt%). In the present research, Cu-0.6Ta-0.6Cr and Cu-0.6Ta alloys with low Ta content were fabricated by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering. The results indicate that the thermal stability and tensile strength of Cu-0.6Ta-0.6Cr alloy are significantly increased by the addition of Cr. The microstructure characterizations reveal that the performance enhancement of Cu-0.6Ta-0.6Cr alloy is ascribed to the transformation of nanoparticles in the matrix from Ta to more stable Cr 2 Ta Laves and the refinement effects of these nanoparticles from 19.4 nm to 14.1 nm. This work provides a potential for the wide applications of Cu-Ta alloy with low Ta by alloying with Cr at elevated temperatures. • The addition of Cr transforms the nanoparticles from Ta to Cr 2 Ta Laves. • The grains and nanoparticles in Cu-Ta-Cr alloy have extremely high growth resistance. • The thermal stability of the Cu-Ta-Cr alloy is highly improved by adding Cr. • The tensile strength of Cu-Ta-Cr alloy is greatly increased by adding Cr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]