High-temperature lean Cu alloys with Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2

Tianhao Wang; Zexi Lu; Qiaofu Zhang; Abhinav Saboo; Xiaolong Ma; Tingkun Liu; Zaynab Mahbooba; Jacqueline Hardin; Xiao Li; Keerti Kappagantula; Thomas Kozmel

doi:10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.108884

High-temperature lean Cu alloys with Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2

Tianhao Wang^*, Zexi Lu, Qiaofu Zhang^*, Abhinav Saboo, Xiaolong Ma, Tingkun Liu, Zaynab Mahbooba, Jacqueline Hardin, Xiao Li, Keerti Kappagantula, Thomas Kozmel

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Two Cu-Cr-Nb alloys, denoted as alloy 1 (comprising Cu-0.89 at% Cr-0.42 at% Nb) and alloy 2 (comprising Cu-1.84 at% Cr-0.99 at% Nb), were produced through a series of manufacturing processes including vacuum induction melting, melt spinning, consolidation, brazing, and baking, with both alloys aimed at achieving a nominal Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2. Microstructural characterization using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction identified the cubic C15 Laves-phase Cr₂Nb as the dominant precipitate in both alloys, cross-validated by thermodynamic calculations and atomistic simulation-based density functional theory (DFT). Besides cubic C15 Cr₂Nb, hexagonal C14-phase Cr₂Nb and α-BiF3 cubic structured Cr₃Nb were also observed in the alloys, including a coherent interface formed between the Cr₃Nb precipitate and the Cu matrix. The hardness of the alloys increases, and the electrical conductivity decreases with increasing alloying addition content; two practical equations described the trends. Further DFT simulations revealed that the electrical conductivity (conductance) of the Cu/Cr₂Nb interface is an order of magnitude higher than the intrinsic Cu high-angle grain boundaries. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd.

Original language	English
Article number	108884
Journal	Materials Today Communications
Volume	39
Online published	10 Apr 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.108884
Publication status	Published - Jun 2024

Funding

The authors acknowledge the support of the US Department of Energy Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Office and Office of Electricity in the completion of this work. This study is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) with award No. DE-SC0020932 and program manager Dr. John Boger, as well as DOE CABLE Program with award No. DE-SC0022815 and program manager Dr. Tina Kaarsberg and Mr. Benjamin Shrager. The authors are grateful to Prof. Paul Sanders and Mr. Joseph Licavoli at Michigan Technology University for the ribbon fabrication by melt spinning process, and Mr. Peter Jacobson at Leilac for the electrical conductivity measurements. The authors thank Mr. Philipp Borchard at Dymenso LLC and Prof. Ji-Cheng Zhao at University of Maryland for useful discussions when designing the Cu-Cr-Nb alloy for particle acceleration applications. The authors are grateful to Anthony Guzman for the preparation of specimens for analysis. The computational resources were provided by PNNL Institutional Computing. Z. L. thanks Dr. Anne M. Chaka from PNNL for providing support for ab initio thermodynamic calculations. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated by the Battelle Memorial Institute for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC06-76LO1830.

Research Keywords

Cr2Nb
Cu-Cr-Nb alloy
Density-functional theory
Electrical conductivity
Thermodynamic calculation
Transmission electron microscope

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title = "High-temperature lean Cu alloys with Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2",

abstract = "Two Cu-Cr-Nb alloys, denoted as alloy 1 (comprising Cu-0.89 at% Cr-0.42 at% Nb) and alloy 2 (comprising Cu-1.84 at% Cr-0.99 at% Nb), were produced through a series of manufacturing processes including vacuum induction melting, melt spinning, consolidation, brazing, and baking, with both alloys aimed at achieving a nominal Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2. Microstructural characterization using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction identified the cubic C15 Laves-phase Cr2Nb as the dominant precipitate in both alloys, cross-validated by thermodynamic calculations and atomistic simulation-based density functional theory (DFT). Besides cubic C15 Cr2Nb, hexagonal C14-phase Cr2Nb and α-BiF3 cubic structured Cr3Nb were also observed in the alloys, including a coherent interface formed between the Cr3Nb precipitate and the Cu matrix. The hardness of the alloys increases, and the electrical conductivity decreases with increasing alloying addition content; two practical equations described the trends. Further DFT simulations revealed that the electrical conductivity (conductance) of the Cu/Cr2Nb interface is an order of magnitude higher than the intrinsic Cu high-angle grain boundaries. {\textcopyright} 2024 Elsevier Ltd.",

keywords = "Cr2Nb, Cu-Cr-Nb alloy, Density-functional theory, Electrical conductivity, Thermodynamic calculation, Transmission electron microscope",

author = "Tianhao Wang and Zexi Lu and Qiaofu Zhang and Abhinav Saboo and Xiaolong Ma and Tingkun Liu and Zaynab Mahbooba and Jacqueline Hardin and Xiao Li and Keerti Kappagantula and Thomas Kozmel",

year = "2024",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.108884",

language = "English",

volume = "39",

journal = "Materials Today Communications",

issn = "2352-4928",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - High-temperature lean Cu alloys with Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2

AU - Wang, Tianhao

AU - Lu, Zexi

AU - Zhang, Qiaofu

AU - Saboo, Abhinav

AU - Ma, Xiaolong

AU - Liu, Tingkun

AU - Mahbooba, Zaynab

AU - Hardin, Jacqueline

AU - Li, Xiao

AU - Kappagantula, Keerti

AU - Kozmel, Thomas

PY - 2024/6

Y1 - 2024/6

N2 - Two Cu-Cr-Nb alloys, denoted as alloy 1 (comprising Cu-0.89 at% Cr-0.42 at% Nb) and alloy 2 (comprising Cu-1.84 at% Cr-0.99 at% Nb), were produced through a series of manufacturing processes including vacuum induction melting, melt spinning, consolidation, brazing, and baking, with both alloys aimed at achieving a nominal Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2. Microstructural characterization using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction identified the cubic C15 Laves-phase Cr2Nb as the dominant precipitate in both alloys, cross-validated by thermodynamic calculations and atomistic simulation-based density functional theory (DFT). Besides cubic C15 Cr2Nb, hexagonal C14-phase Cr2Nb and α-BiF3 cubic structured Cr3Nb were also observed in the alloys, including a coherent interface formed between the Cr3Nb precipitate and the Cu matrix. The hardness of the alloys increases, and the electrical conductivity decreases with increasing alloying addition content; two practical equations described the trends. Further DFT simulations revealed that the electrical conductivity (conductance) of the Cu/Cr2Nb interface is an order of magnitude higher than the intrinsic Cu high-angle grain boundaries. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd.

AB - Two Cu-Cr-Nb alloys, denoted as alloy 1 (comprising Cu-0.89 at% Cr-0.42 at% Nb) and alloy 2 (comprising Cu-1.84 at% Cr-0.99 at% Nb), were produced through a series of manufacturing processes including vacuum induction melting, melt spinning, consolidation, brazing, and baking, with both alloys aimed at achieving a nominal Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2. Microstructural characterization using transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction identified the cubic C15 Laves-phase Cr2Nb as the dominant precipitate in both alloys, cross-validated by thermodynamic calculations and atomistic simulation-based density functional theory (DFT). Besides cubic C15 Cr2Nb, hexagonal C14-phase Cr2Nb and α-BiF3 cubic structured Cr3Nb were also observed in the alloys, including a coherent interface formed between the Cr3Nb precipitate and the Cu matrix. The hardness of the alloys increases, and the electrical conductivity decreases with increasing alloying addition content; two practical equations described the trends. Further DFT simulations revealed that the electrical conductivity (conductance) of the Cu/Cr2Nb interface is an order of magnitude higher than the intrinsic Cu high-angle grain boundaries. © 2024 Elsevier Ltd.

KW - Cr2Nb

KW - Cu-Cr-Nb alloy

KW - Density-functional theory

KW - Electrical conductivity

KW - Thermodynamic calculation

KW - Transmission electron microscope

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U2 - 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.108884

DO - 10.1016/j.mtcomm.2024.108884

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 2352-4928

VL - 39

JO - Materials Today Communications

JF - Materials Today Communications

M1 - 108884

ER -

High-temperature lean Cu alloys with Cr-to-Nb atomic ratio of 2

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