Microstructural characterization of Cu/Al composites and effect of cooling rate at the Cu/Al interfacial region

Cu/Al composites are of vital importance in industrial applications because of their numerous advantages. The influence of bond-ing temperature and cooling rate on the microstructure and morphology of Cu/Al composites was investigated in this paper. The interfacial morphology and constituent phases at the Cu/Al interface were analyzed by optical microscopy and field-emission scanning electron mi-croscopy equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results indicate that effective Cu–Al bonding requires a higher bonding temperature to facilitate interdiffusion between the two metals. The microstructural characteristics are associated with various bonding tem-peratures, which impact the driving force of interdiffusion. It is observed that cooling rate exerts a significant influence on the morphology and amount of the intermetallic compounds at the interfacial region. Meanwhile, microhardness measurements show that hardness varies with the bonding temperature and rate of cooling.