Microstructure and properties of titanium boride dispersed Cu alloys fabricated by spray forming

Abstract Dispersion strengthened Cu alloys have been manufactured by conventional spray forming and also by reactive spray forming, followed by hot extrusion of the spray deposited billets. In this work, we have systematically investigated the relationship between the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Cu alloys fabricated through two techniques by means of optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and tensile testing. The size of dispersed particles in the reactive spray formed alloy was much finer than that in the conventionally spray formed alloy. That was because the dominant chemical reaction between Ti and B had occurred in Cu–Ti–B alloy melt in conventional spray forming while it had occurred after deposition of droplets in reactive spray forming. The yield strength of the reactive spray formed alloy was greater than that of the conventional spray formed alloy in spite of a lower volume fraction of reinforced particles. To understand the mechanism responsible for this experimental observation, the yield strength of the two Cu alloys were analyzed using the dislocation pile-up model and Orowan mechanism, which were fairly consistent with the experimental results. Increase in yield strength of reactive spray formed alloy compared with that of conventional spray formed alloy was largely attributed to nanoscale TiB dispersoids. This indicates that refining the reinforced particle size to nanoscale is of special importance for the development of high strength Cu alloys since the yield strength predominantly depends on the size and volume fraction of the reinforcement. From this point of view, reactive spray forming can be considered as a new promising process to develop high strength Cu alloys.