Effects of B on the Structure and Properties of Lead-Tin Bronze Alloy and the Mechanism of Strengthening and Toughening

High lead–tin bronze is widely used in the selection of wear-resistant parts such as bearings, bearing bushes, aerospace pump rotors, turbines, and guide plates because of its excellent wear resistance, thermal conductivity, fatigue resistance, and strong load-bearing capacity. At present, high lead–tin bronze is used as a material for bimetal cylinders, which cannot meet the requirements of high-strength, anti-wear in actual working conditions under high temperature, high speed, and heavy load conditions, and is prone to de-cylinder, cylinder holding, copper sticking, etc. The reason for the failure of cylinder body parts is that the strength of copper alloy materials is insufficient, the proportion of lead in the structure is serious, and the wear resistance of the material is reduced. Therefore, it has important theoretical significance and application value to carry out research on the comprehensive properties of high-performance lead–tin bronze materials and reveal the strengthening and toughening mechanism. In this paper, The ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy is taken as the main research object, and the particle size, microstructure, mechanical properties, and friction of lead particles in ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy are systematically studied after single addition of B in ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy liquid. This paper takes ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy as the research object to study the effect of adding B on the morphology, microstructure, mechanical properties, and friction and wear properties of ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy lead particles, and discusses the strengthening and toughening mechanism of ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy under the action of B, and prepares a double high-performance lead–tin bronze alloy for metal cylinders. The main research results are as follows: The addition of B elements has an obvious refining effect on the α (Cu) equiaxed grains and lead particles in ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy. The average size of lead particles decreases from 30.0 µm to 24.8 µm as the B content increases from 0 wt.% to 0.1 wt.%. The reason for grain refinement is that B is easily concentrated at the grain boundary during the ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy solidification process, which affects the diffusion of solute atoms at the solidification interface, inhibits the grain growth, refines the grain, and hinders the sinking and homogenizes distribution between dendrites of lead; the tensile strength of the ZCuPb20Sn5 alloy improves. Relatively without B, when the addition of P is 0.1 wt.%, the tensile strength is the largest at 244.04 MPa, which enhances 13%; the maximum hardness gets 75.0 HB, which enhances 13.6%, as well as elongation get the maximum value at 17.2%. The main mechanism is that the addition of B forms a high melting point submicron Ni4B3 phase in the lead–tin bronze alloy. The Ni4B3 phase is dispersed in the matrix and strengthens the matrix. With the increase in B content (more than 0.1 wt.%), the Ni4B3 phase changes from sub-micron degree granular to micron degree block-like, and some defects such as shrinkage and porosity appear in the structure, resulting in a decrease in mechanical properties.

Phase Composition and Its Spatial Distribution in Antique Copper Coins: Neutron Tomography and Diffraction Studies

The chemical and elementary composition, internal arrangement, and spatial distribution of the components of ancient Greek copper coins were studied using XRF analysis, neutron diffraction and neutron tomography methods. The studied coins are interesting from a historical and cultural point of view, as they are “Charon’s obol’s”. These coins were discovered at the location of an ancient Greek settlement during archaeological excavations on the “Volna-1” necropolis in Krasnodar Region, Russian Federation. It was determined that the coins are mainly made of a bronze alloy, a tin content that falls in the range of 1.1(2)–7.9(3) wt.%. All coins are highly degraded; corrosion and patina areas occupy volumes from ~27 % to ~62 % of the original coin volumes. The neutron tomography method not only provided 3D data of the spatial distribution of the bronze alloy and the patina with corrosion contamination inside coin volumes, but also restored the minting pattern of several studied coins. Taking into account the obtained results, the origin and use of these coins in the light of historical and economic processes of the Bosporan Kingdom are discussed.

The use of Robinia pseudoacacia L fruit extract as a green corrosion inhibitor in the protection of copper-based objects

The most important inhibitors used in bronze disease are BTA and AMT. While these inhibitors control corrosion, they are toxic and cancerous. In this study, the acacia fruit extract (200 ppm to 1800 ppm) was used to the prevention of corrosion inhibition of bronze alloy in corrosive sodium chloride solution 0.5 M, for 4 weeks consecutively. The Bronze alloy used in this research, was made based on the same percentage as the ancient alloys (Cu-10Sn). IE% was used to obtain the inhibitory efficiency percentage and Rp can be calculated from the resistance of polarization. SEM–EDX was used to evaluate the surfaces of alloy as well as inhibitory. The experiment was conducted in split plot design in time based on the RCD in four replications. ANOVA was performed and comparison of means square using Duncan's multiple range test at one percent probability level. The highest rate of corrosion inhibition (93.5%) was obtained at a concentration of 1800 ppm with an increase in the concentration of the extract, corrosion inhibition also increased, i.e., more bronze was prevented from burning. Also, the highest corrosion inhibitory activity of Acacia extract (79.66) was in the second week and with increasing duration, this effect has decreased. EDX analysis of the control sample matrix showed that the amount of chlorine was 8.47%wt, while in the presence of corrosive sodium chloride solution, after 4 weeks, the amount of chlorine detected was 3.20%wt. According to the morphology (needle and rhombus) of these corrosion products based on the SEM images, it can be said, they are the type of atacamite and paratacamite. They have caused bronze disease in historical bronze works. The green inhibitor of Acacia fruit aqueous extract can play an effective role in inhibiting corrosion of bronze, but at higher concentrations, it became fungal, which can reduce the role of Acacia fruit aqueous extract and even ineffective. To get better performance of green inhibitors, more tests need to be done to improve and optimize.