Abstract
In this work, a CuCe alloy was prepared using a directional solidification method at a series of withdrawal rates of 100, 25, 10, 8, and 5 μm/s. We found that the primary phase microstructure transforms from cellular crystals to cellular peritectic coupled growth and eventually, changes into dendrites as the withdrawal rate increases. The phase constituents in the directionally solidified samples were confirmed to be Cu2Ce, CuCe, and CuCe + Ce eutectics. The primary dendrite spacing was significantly refined with an increasing withdrawal rate, resulting in higher compressive strength and strain. Moreover, the cellular peritectic coupled growth at 10 μm/s further strengthened the alloy, with its compressive property reaching the maximum value of 266 MPa. Directional solidification was proven to be an impactful method to enhance the mechanical properties and produce well-aligned in situ composites in peritectic systems.
Highlights
A number of important binary alloys exhibit peritectic transitions during solidification, such asFe-Ni, Fe-C, Cu-Zn, Ti-Al, and Sn-Ni [1,2,3,4,5,6]
The optical microscopy images of the cross-section and longitudinal section of the directional solidification stabilization stage of the CuCe alloys are shown in Figure 1, which indicate the structures primarily consisting of the primary dendritic/cellular phase and the interdendritic phase
A CuCe alloy was prepared by directional solidification at various withdrawal rates (100, 25, 10, 8, and 5 μm/s)
Summary
A number of important binary alloys exhibit peritectic transitions during solidification, such as. Binary alloys with peritectic compositions can form a variety of microstructures in directional solidification experiments, such as discrete bands of the α-phase and β-phase, island structure, and primary cell/dendritic crystal, and cellular peritectic coupled growth (CPCG) [7,8]. The primary dendrite arm space is one of the most important microstructural parameters in the directional solidification structure and is mainly controlled by the growth conditions (thermal gradient G and withdrawal rate V) for a given alloy [9]. The primary dendrite arm spacing of the peritectic CuCe alloy was discussed based on both the experimental and simulation result. The compressive properties of Cu-Ce alloys were further studied corresponding to different withdrawal rates and the relating peritectic directional solidified structures
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