High strength and electrical conductivity of UFG copper alloys

Copper based materials are still the most attractive low resistivity materials for microelectronics and electrotechnics applications, though, all variants developed to combine strength and conductivity, such as solid solutions and composites, suffer from decay in electric conductivity while strength is increased. In a addition, linear decay was also conjectured for pure copper when grain size is refined below the UFG and nanostructured domains (except when grain boundaries are pure twins). Copper alloys with low content of silver and chromium were prepared by high pressure torsion (HPT) with various annealing conditions. Vickers hardness and electric resistivity in the temperature range of 4K-340K, were measured as well as microstructural characterizations were performed using quantitative X-ray diffraction. Depending on the annealing conditions the alloys exhibit from 25% to 75% of IACS electric conductivity at room temperature and hardness in the range of 200 Hv. Origins of both high strength and high electric conductivity were investigated from microstructures analysis, using transmission electron microscopy and mechanical testing.