The Nanostructured High Strength High Conductivity Cu Matrix Composites With Different BCC Metals Strengthening Filaments

The nanostructured microcomposites with FCC (Face Centered Cubic lattice) copper metal matrix and BCC (Body Centered Cubic lattice) metal strengthening filaments uniformly distributed in copper matrix are characterized by specific unique combination of physical and mechanical properties that distinctly differs from the properties of coarse grained macrocomposite materials. The experimental investigation on the influence of the nature of BCC strengthening elements is presented. Cu-Nb, Cu-V and Cu-Fe microcomposite wires have been designed and produced with the use of the same fabrication approach. The main mechanisms of microstructure transformation for all three composite materials have been analyzed. The possibility to attain the optimum microstructure with extremely high volume fraction of internal phase boundaries for each of the investigated microcomposites has been estimated. The data on the mechanical strength and electrical conductivity of Cu-Nb, Cu-V and Cu-Fe microcomposites are presented. The correlations the attained mechanical strength and conductivity with microstructure parameters are analyzed.