Microstructures and mechanical properties of bulk nanocrystalline Fe3Al materials with 5, 10 and 15 wt. Cu prepared by aluminothermic reaction

摘要

Bulk nanocrystalline Fe3Al based materials with 5, 10 and 15 wt. % Cu were prepared by aluminothermic reaction in which the melts were superheated about 1600 K before solidification. Microstructures of those materials were investigated by optical microscope, electron probe microanalysis, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope. It was shown that microstructures of the materials consisted of a nanocrystalline matrix phase and a little contamination Al2O3 and Fe3AlCx fiber phases. The nanocrystalline matrix phase was composed of Fe, Al and Cu elements and disordered bcc which did not change with content of Cu. Average grain sizes of the nanocrystalline phase of the materials with 5, 10 and 15 wt. % Cu were 18, 24 and 25 nm respectively and that of the material with 5 wt. % Cu was the smallest. Compressive properties of the materials were tested. The material with 5 wt. % Cu has good ductility compared with the materials with 10 and 15 wt. % Cu. Yield strength of the materials was about two times higher than that of coarse grained Fe3Al material. The compressive yield strength of the material with 5 wt. % Cu was higher than those of the materials with 10 and 15 wt. % Cu and its flow stress in compression was up to about 1500 MPa.