A high strength, high conductivity, low radiation activation nanocomposite

Abstract

A high strength, high conductivity nanocomposite material, consisting of ultrafine, discontinuous vanadium filaments reinforcing a copper matrix, has been developed. This metal matrix composite possesses the same outstanding combination of strength and conductivity as does the more familiar CuNb nanocomposite. Tensile strengths in excess of 1.6 GPa were obtained in wire and 1 GPa in sheet. A significant amount of strength was retained after exposure to temperatures of up to 400/spl deg/C. Fatigue test results show that the material can withstand stress about equal to the 0.2% yield strength for thousands of cycles. Mechanical testing of sheet samples indicates that elongation to failure is approximately 40% greater than in CuNb for equivalent strength levels. While this material was principally developed for high heat flux, high radiation environments such as first walls and divertor structures in fusion reactors, its excellent high stress fatigue properties also make it a very promising material for high field magnet applications.