Achieving optimal wear performance for highly-eutectic Cu-Ti alloys via the liquid-solid reaction approach

A series of Cu-Ti alloys have been prepared by the liquid-solid reaction approach at a high vacuum environment. Resultant solidified microstructures have demonstrated highly-eutectic features, which are mainly composed of typical CuTi and CuTi2 phases. Vicker hardness tests have shown that the hardness values of CuTi and CuTi2 are 304 ± 15 HV and 683 ± 27 HV, respectively. Quantitative phase identification has indicated that, as the Ti content increases from 53 at% to 61 at%, the volume fraction of eutectic structure increases initially but decreases afterward, which are 18.8 ± 3.4%, 94.6 ± 3.5% and 54.4 ± 4.5%, respectively. The optimal wear performance has been achieved when the Ti content reaches 57 at%, which is concurrent to the highest volume fraction of the eutectic structure (94.6 ± 3.5%). Our findings may pave a viable yet economic way of fabricating wear resistant alloys in a controllable manner. No data was used for the research described in the article.