Development trend of high purification of copper alloy in the future

High purification of copper alloy: The main purpose of high purification is to improve the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material as much as possible. The copper content of industrial copper is from 99.90% to 99.95%, and then to 99.99% (4N) or even higher, such as the ultra-pure copper containing 99.9999% (6N), the impurity content requirements are also more strict. For example, oxygen content (O) is reduced from 0.01%~0.05% to 0.001%~0.006%, until 0.0002%~0.0003%. Minimize the effect of impurities on electrical and thermal conductivity. Typical applications include high PURITY COPPER for NETWORK transmission connection wires, HIGH purity oxygen free COPPER for electrical vacuum devices, precision guidance and high fidelity signal transmission, single crystal copper and ultra-pure copper for superconductors, etc. Compared with polycrystalline copper, the tensile strength of single crystal copper is reduced by 24.71%, the elongation is increased by 2.39 times, the section shrinkage is increased by 4.14 times, the resistivity is reduced by 31.7%, less than 1.72×10-8 ω ·m, the oxygen content is less than 5×10-6, and the hydrogen content is less than 0... 5×10-6, density greater than 8.92t/m3. On the other hand, the development of copper alloy materials towards high purification direction is manifested in the requirement of high purity purification of copper alloy matrix in microalloyed copper alloy to ensure that the materials have higher comprehensive properties.

Second, copper alloy microalloying: the purpose of microalloying is to sacrifice the least electrical and thermal conductivity in exchange for other properties, such as a large increase in strength. Such as adding about 0.1% iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), tellurium (Te), silicon (Si)), silver (Ag), titanium (Ti), chromium (Cr) or pick (Zr), rare earth elements, etc., can improve its strength, hardness, resistance to softening temperature or cutting. Microalloyed copper is one of the most popular copper alloy materials.

The concept of aerobic copper is that compared with oxygen free copper, its copper content is more than 99.90%, equivalent to the general pure copper, but its oxygen content is controlled in 0.005%~0.02%, and the conductivity can be more than 100%IACS. This is because the appropriate amount of oxygen has a certain oxidation and combination effect on the impurity elements between crystals, which purifies the matrix to a certain extent.