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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter October 12, 2021

Microstructural Examinations of Copper Antimony Alloys

Gefügeuntersuchungen an Kupfer-Antimon Legierungen
  • R. Haubner

    Roland Haubner is Ao.Univ.Prof. at TU-Wien. His fields of activity till now were industrial tungsten production, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) and the low-pressure diamond deposition. He is also involved in materials characterization, ceramics, corrosion and archaeometallurgy.

    and S. Strobl

    Susanne Strobl is working as a scientific officer at the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics (TU-Wien) and is teaching supervisor of metallography. She studied chemistry and her doctoral thesis was about sintered steels.

From the journal Practical Metallography

Abstract

Among other materials, fahlores were used in the Bronze Age copper ore smelting process. These contain, apart from sulfur, arsenic and antimony. Therefore, these elements can be found in Bronze Age copper casting ingots or artifacts. In order to study the behavior of Sb more closely, two copper alloys containing 10 and 30 wt. % Sb were melted and subjected to a metallographic examination.

On the one hand, microstructures with copper dendrites and homogeneous interdendritic areas primarily composed of intermetallic phase could be found. On the other hand, at higher Sb concentrations, first Cu3Sb precipitated which, in turn, transformed to Cu10Sb3 upon cooling. The crystals in these microstructures were characterized by numerous parallel cracks. No further phases were observed by XRD.

Kurzfassung

Bei der bronzezeitlichen Verhüttung von Kupfererzen wurden auch Fahlerze eingesetzt, welche neben Schwefel Arsen und Antimon enthalten. Deshalb findet man diese Elemente auch in bronzezeitlichen Kupfergusskuchen oder Artefakten. Um das Verhalten von Sb näher zu studieren, wurden zwei Kupferlegierungen mit 10 bzw. 30 Gew.-% Sb erschmolzen und metallographisch untersucht.

Einerseits wurden Gefüge mit Kupferdendriten und homogenen interdendritischen Bereichen gefunden, wobei diese überwiegend aus intermetallischer Phase bestehen. Andererseits schied sich bei höheren Sb Konzentrationen zuerst Cu3Sb ab, welches sich beim Abkühlen wiederum in Cu10Sb3 umwandelte. Diese Gefüge enthielten viele parallele Risse in den Kristallen. Mittels XRD wurden keine weiteren Phasen beobachtet.

About the authors

R. Haubner

Roland Haubner is Ao.Univ.Prof. at TU-Wien. His fields of activity till now were industrial tungsten production, CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) and the low-pressure diamond deposition. He is also involved in materials characterization, ceramics, corrosion and archaeometallurgy.

S. Strobl

Susanne Strobl is working as a scientific officer at the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics (TU-Wien) and is teaching supervisor of metallography. She studied chemistry and her doctoral thesis was about sintered steels.

References / Literatur

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Received: 2021-06-30
Accepted: 2021-08-04
Published Online: 2021-10-12
Published in Print: 2021-10-31

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston, Germany

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