Tribological and corrosion behaviors of bulk Cu W nanocomposites fabricated by mechanical alloying and warm pressing

Bulk Cu90W10 nanocomposites were fabricated by combination of mechanical alloying and warm pressing. The microstructure, mechanical properties, pin-on-disk dry sliding wear and corrosion behaviors were investigated. The W particles with average size of ∼112 nm are uniformly distributed in the Cu matrix and such nanostructured CuW alloys demonstrate excellent high temperature stability. After annealing at 600 °C for 1 h, the W particle size only increased ∼12% and hardness only decreased ∼5%. The plastic deformation region in Cu90W10 extends only about 3 μm below which the microstructure has recovered to the initial state and no chemical nanolayering was formed. Electrochemical corrosion tests show that the surface of Cu90W10 nanocomposite was severely damaged. The corrosion products were identified as predominantly gravel-like CuCl crystals with size of 0.5–4 μm and minor amount of very fine tungsten oxides nanoparticles with size of 50–80 nm.