| AVS 62nd International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Accelerating Materials Discovery for Global Competitiveness Focus Topic | Monday Sessions |
| Session MG+2D+MI+NS+TF-MoA |
| Session: | Design and Discovery (Bio and Other Interfaces) |
| Presenter: | Ivan Shchelkanov, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign |
| Authors: | I.A. Shchelkanov, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign D.N. Ruzic, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign I. Jasiuk, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Modern industry demands advanced materials with enhanced properties. To expand a range of available materials the covetic alloy is studied. Covetic is a novel alloy invented and patented by Third Millennium Metals, LLC (TMM). This is a new hybrid material made of a carbon and a metal, where the carbon forms a super lattice structure inside a metal. The base metal can be copper, aluminium, lead, tin or other low-melting point metals. In normal conditions the metal does not wet and does not form chemical bond with the carbon. However, the amount of carbon in the covetic alloy exceeds carbon solubility in the metal by several orders of magnitude. Such a composition is achieved by supplying a current to a volume of molten metal while it is being blended with micron size carbon particles. The alloy is prepared in vacuum.
The process of covetic formation is influenced by chemical composition of the base metal, a cast volume temperature change rate, external electric and magnetic fields, compound viscosity, surface and interphase tension coefficient, density, and thermal and electric conductivities of the metal and carbon particles. A part of the process of covetic alloy formation, which involves carbon particles dissolving, can be compared to phenomena occur in dust plasma. This assumption provides a possibility to visualise processes of microparticles spatial distribution and decomposition into single atoms with subsequent formation of a carbon supper lattice inside the metal lattice.
The current work focuses on: the electric current influence on the alloy structure formation and carbon atoms distribution inside the metal; copper covetic hardness, conductivity, and tensile strength change as a function of carbon composition; and a phenomenological model for covetic alloy formation.