Microstructure and friction properties of Cu-Fe binary alloys by thermite reaction

Abstract

Cu-Fe alloy containing 2% (mass fraction) Al was prepared based on the thermite reaction. The phase structure and microstructure of the Cu-Fe alloy were characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS and EBSD techniques, and the hardness and wear resistance of Cu-Fe alloy were tested by using HVS-1000A Vickers hardness tester and CFT-1 material surface performance tester. The results show that the Cu-Fe alloy is efficiently prepared by the thermite reaction, with controllable composition and dense microstructure without inclusions. Fe phase is evenly distributed in the Cu matrix, the interface of Cu and Fe is well combined. The hardness of the Fe phase and the matrix Cu phase are 322.2HV and 169.3HV, respectively.The electric conductivity of Cu-Fe alloy is 40.8 MS/m. At the same time, the Cu-Fe alloy prepared by thermite reaction has lower friction coefficient and the average friction coefficient is 0.124, the wear rate is 2.17×10-3 mm3·N-1·m-1.

Keywords

• cu-fe alloy
• thermite reaction
• lower friction coefficient
• wear resistance