Microstructure Formation and Nanoindentation Behavior of Rapidly Solidified Cu-Fe-Zr Immiscible Alloys

Abstract

The binary Cu-Fe system is characterized by a metastable liquid miscibility gap. WhenZr is added into the Cu-Fe alloy, the miscibility gap can be extended into Cu-Fe-Zr ternary system. In the present study Cu-Fe-Zr alloys were prepared by single-roller melting-spinning method, and the samples were characterized by the SEM, EDS, HRTEM and nanoidentation. The results show that liquid-liquid phase separation into CuZr-rich and FeZr-rich liquids takes place during rapid cooling the Cu-Fe-Zr alloy, and the mechanism depends on the atomic ratio of Cu to Fe. With increasing Zr content, the size of secondary phase formed by the liquid-liquid phase separation reduces to nanoscale. The structure with amorphous Cu-rich nanoparticles embedded in the amorphous Fe-rich matrix was obtained in the as-quenched Cu20Fe20Zr60 alloy. For its structure particularity of the Cu20Fe20Zr60 sample, mechanical evaluation was carried out by using nanoindentation.