The structure and functional properties of Ti2NiCu alloy rapidly quenched ribbons with different fractions of crystalline phase

The samples of Ti2NiCu rapidly quenched alloy with different fractions of crystalline phase have been prepared by electric pulse technique from as spun amorphous ribbons. The structure and thermomechanical properties of these samples have been studied. The mixture of amorphous and nanocrystalline structures with mean grains size less than 10 nm has been observed by HRTEM. The remarkable thermomechanical properties of the samples with the ratio of crystalline fraction in the range of r=0.4−0.6 (determined by electrical resistivity measurements) have been found. The two-way shape memory effect with the reverse deformation Δε=0.31% has been induced in the sample with r=0.46 by single deformation at cooling below the temperature of martensite transformation. The prototype of microtweezers based on amorphous-nanocrystalline Ti2NiCu melt-spun ribbon alloy with two-way shape memory effect has been designed and tested.