| Abstrakt: |
Cu–Al alloys have been used for marine applications due to their corrosion resistance and smart materials based on the shape memory effect. A technological tendency for Cu–Al alloys is the development of increasingly complex formulations, although the role of alloying elements still unclear in comparison to other metallurgical systems, such as steels. In the present study, 2 at% Cu were substituted by equal quantities of Ni and Ga in the Cu81Al19 alloy, which are elements from the same period and similar in size to the Cu atom. The obtained alloys were analyzed by several characterization techniques. The results showed that the Ni addition increases the critical temperatures and decreases the microhardness values. The Ga addition has the opposite effect. Both alloying elements produce new phases in the microstructures, hamper the α phase ordering, accelerate the β phase decomposition, and increase the conductivity of the Cu81Al19 alloy. From this study, it is possible to realize that small changes in atomic features (electronic structure, atomic radius, valence, electronegativity) from a portion of atoms are enough to obtain distinctive materials, which turns the design of new Cu–Al alloys and the prediction of their properties a challenging task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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