Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Al-2Fe-xCo Ternary Alloys with High Thermal Conductivity

The microstructures, mechanical properties, and thermal conductivity (TC) of Al-2Fe-xCo (x = 0~0.8) alloys in as-cast, homogeneous annealed, and cool rolled states are systematically studied. Results indicate that appropriate Co modification (x ≤ 0.5) simultaneously improves the thermal and mechanical properties of as-cast Al-2Fe alloys. The improvement of TC is attributed to ameliorating the morphology of primary Al(3)Fe phases from needles to short rods and fine particles, which decreases the scattering probability of free electrons during the electronic transmission. However, further increasing the Co content (x = 0.8) decreases the TC due to the formation of a coarse plate-like Al(2)FeCo phase. Besides, the thermal conductivity of annealed Al-2Fe-xCo alloys is higher than that of as-cast alloys because of the elimination of lattice defects and spheroidization of Al(3)Fe phases. After cool rolling with 80 % deformation, thermal conductivity of alloys slightly increases due to the breaking down of Al(2)FeCo phases. The rolled Al-2Fe-0.3Co alloy exhibits the highest thermal conductivity, which is about 225 W/(m·K), approximately 11 % higher than the as-cast Al-2Fe sample. The ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and elongation (EL) of as-cast Al-2Fe-0.5Co (UTS: 138 MPa; EL: 22.0 %) are increased by 35 % and 69 %, respectively, compared with those of unmodified alloy (UTS: 102 MPa; EL: 13.0 %).