Solid State Transformations and Equilibrium Crystal Structures of an Au-Cu Alloy with Shape Memory Effect

Abstract

Au-50%Cu (at. %) alloy presents the shape memory effect (SME), which is dependent of the solid state transformation that happens during heating, after the introduction of an internal stress in the quenched state. The solid state phase transformation temperatures were determined by means of Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), both in heating and cooling cycles. With the obtained DTA results, a sequence of high temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments were made, in order to confirm the presence of the solid state phase transformations and to determine their stable crystal structure and lattice parameters. These XRD results were compared with those obtained from the literature. The displacements of the lattice parameters were determined, for each equilibrium phase, for measurements at room temperature and at high temperature. The characteristics of the quenched samples were also studied in order to determine the phase transformations that are responsible for the shape memory effect in this alloy.