Low temperature solubility limit of copper in iron
Résumé
The solubility limit of copper in iron at temperature lower than 700°C is not precisely known because copper diffusion is too slow to reach an equilibrium with classical experimental techniques involving long range diffusion. However, fine precipitation of copper can lead to an equilibrium in a reasonable ageing time. Hence, coupling ThermoElectric Power and Small Angle X-ray Scattering techniques leads to a precise estimation of this solubility limit in the temperature range 500°C-700°C Values obtained are confirmed by Tomographic Atom Probe and give results much higher than what is usually extrapolated from high temperature experiments.