Metals (Feb 2023)

Superior Plasticity of Silver-Based Composites with Reinforcing Pyrochlore

  • Lingjie Zhang,
  • Weiwei Cai,
  • Ningzhong Bao,
  • Xueyu Geng,
  • Hui Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/met13020325
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 2
p. 325

Abstract

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Silver (Ag) has difficult forming strong bonding with oxides due to its deep d band beneath the Fermi level and completely filled 4d orbital. Thus, it is difficult to fabricate silver-based composites with superior plasticity and processability because of the easy debonding at their interface. Herein, La2Sn2O7 pyrochlore was used as a reinforcing phase for a silver matrix. The enhanced interfacial bonding strength of Ag-La2Sn2O7 was confirmed both theoretically and experimentally, indicating that Ag could form more localized ionic bonding with La2Sn2O7 than with SnO2. The superior plasticity was further confirmed for the Ag-La2Sn2O7 composite, as the uniform elongation (UE) of the Ag-La2Sn2O7 composite was ~19%, i.e., ~14% higher than and 2.8 times that of the conventional Ag-SnO2 composite. The plasticity enhancement mechanism was also unraveled by calculating the interfacial mobility. This work verified the usefulness of pyrochlore to fabricate silver-based composites with superior plasticity and also provides a new strategy for the construction of advanced silver-based composites for application in the electrical contact field.

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