High strength, high electrical conductivity and thermally stable bulk Cu/Ag nanolayered composites prepared by cross accumulative roll bonding

• Main Authors: Chaoping You, Weibin Xie, Shu Miao, Tongxiang Liang, Longfei Zeng, Xuehui Zhang, Hang Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-02-01
• Series: Materials & Design
• Subjects: Cross accumulative roll bonding; Nanolayered composites; High strength; High electrical conductivity; Thermal stability
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127521000083

Bulk Cu/Ag multilayered composites with controlled individual layer thickness (h) varying from several hundred micrometers down to 20 nm were fabricated via cross accumulative roll bonding (CARB). The well-defined, continuous Cu/Ag multilayer structure with flat, planar, and sharp interfaces was found to remain stable when the layer thickness was reduced from several hundred micrometers down to 20 nm. A preferential interface character of {110}Cu[111]//{110}Ag[111] was formed when the layer thickness was reduced to 20 nm. Specifically, high strength, high electrical conductivity and excellent thermal stability were obtained simultaneously in bulk Cu/Ag nanolayered composite with h = 20 nm. Ultimate tensile strength of 938.1 MPa was achieved, corresponding to 2.9 times higher than the rule-of-mixtures estimate based on the strength of the heavily deformed Cu and Ag samples with 95% rolling reduction. Furthermore, a high electrical conductivity higher than that of pure copper was obtained, while high hardness (3.74 GPa) was maintained up to an annealing temperature of 500 °C. Nevertheless, degradation of the mechanical hardness and nanolayered structure occurred once the temperature exceeded 500 °C. Two major mechanisms are responsible for driving the onset of the thermal instability in this CARB-processed Cu/Ag nanolayered composites, namely triple junction motion and Rayleigh instability mechanisms.