Significantly enhanced high-temperature mechanical properties of Cu-Cr-Zn-Zr-Si alloy with stable second phases and grain boundaries

Improving high-temperature strength and resistance to high-temperature softening is an important method to promote the application of high-performance Cu-Cr-Zr alloy in fields such as resistance welding electrodes and high-speed railway contact wires. A Cu-1.0Cr-0.4Zn-0.1Zr-0.05Si alloy was designed and the combining effects of Zn and Si elements on the microstructure and high-temperature mechanical properties of the alloy were studied. The tensile strength of the alloy at room temperature was 556 MPa, and it was 349 MPa at 500℃ with a softening temperature of 620℃. The main strengthening phases of the alloy were submicron Cr3Si and nano-scaled Cr-rich precipitates. The Zn elements were uniformly solid-solved in the Cu matrix, and the addition of Zn and Si elements significantly retarded the phase transformation of the Cr-rich precipitates. Thermodynamics and kinetics analysis showed that Zn and Si elements promoted the dispersive precipitation of the nano-scaled FCC coherent Cr-rich precipitates by reducing the nucleation energy barrier, while the Si and Zr elements inhibited the coarsening of the Cr-rich precipitates by enriching at the phase boundaries, effectively impeding dislocation motion and grain boundary migration, which mainly contributed to good high-temperature strength and resistance to softening of the Cu-Cr-Zn-Zr-Si alloy.