Phase composition and microstructure formation mechanism of in-situ Cu-Fe micro-composites

The phase composition and microstructure formation mechanism of in-situ Cu-Fe micro-composites were investigated. The microstructures of longitudinal and transverse sections were analyzed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The phase analysis was executed by X-ray diffraction. The common microstructure characteristic of Cu-XFe (X = 11, 14 and 17) alloys was that the second phase α-Fe dendrites were uniformly distributed in the Cu matrix. The disorderly distributed Fe dendrites of Cu-14Fe alloy underwent initial inhomogeneous deformation and then were gradually changed into the directionally arranged Fe fibers of in-situ Cu-14Fe micro-composite in the longitudinal section, and were gradually transformed into the irregular V-shaped Fe fibers in the transverse section. The initial inhomogeneous deformation and the irregular V-shaped Fe fibers in the transverse section are closely related to the formation of texture.