Study of rare earth elements on the physical and mechanical properties of a Cu–Fe–P–Cr alloy

Effects of trace La additions on the microstructures and properties of nanoprecipitates strengthened Cu–Zr alloys

“…These compounds are easily removed because of their lower densities. 13 Therefore, the purification of the melt can effectively improve the strength and electrical conductivity. On the other hand, compared to the Cu-Zr alloy, the grains in the Cu-Zr-La alloy are finer.…”

“…12 It is well-known that rare earth element, due to the special physical and chemical characteristics, could positively influence the precipitates of the age-hardenable alloys and thus influence the properties. Guo et al 13 showed that rare earth element could promote spheroidization and dispersion of the precipitates in Cu-Fe-P-Cr alloys. The addition of rare earth Y in the Al-Zr alloys obviously accelerated the precipitating kinetics of Al 3 Zr through the formation of Al 3 (Zr,Y) precipitates.…”

A novel Cu–Ni–Zn–Al alloy with high strength through precipitation hardening

“…With the increase of the isothermal ageing time, the precipitating rate decreases and the solute concentration in the matrix reaches an equilibrium value. On the other hand, the decreasing dislocation density due to recrystallization during the isothermal ageing facilitates increasing electrical conductivity, and overageing leads to the growing and aggregating of the precipitates, which does little harm to the electrical conductivity of the alloy [7]. Therefore, the electrical conductivity keeps increasing after overageing.…”

Effects of rare earth elements on annealing characteristics of Cu–6wt.% Fe composites

“…Cu-based alloys inevitably contain some impurities and low melting point elements. Rare earth elements can preferentially react with these impurities by forming stable compounds in freezing process and these compounds can easily be removed because of their lower densities [23]. The purifying function of the rare earth additions must reduce the scattering level of the impurity.…”