Precipitation behavior of B2-like particles in Fe-Cu binary alloy

The precipitation behavior in Fe-Cu binary alloy was investigated under transmission electron microscope (TEM) during aging at 650℃ for the time range of 100 s to 300 h. In addition to the zones with higher copper content and ε-Cu were observed, a metastable phase with B2-like structure was found in the early stage of the precipitation process, which is quite different from the equilibrium copper phase shown in the Fe-Cu binary phase diagram and has perfect coherent relationship to the α-Fe matrix. The appearance of B2-like structure is very important concerning the mechanism of aging strengthening effect and mechanical properties of corresponding engineering steels and alloys containing copper.