Academic literature on the topic 'Cu-Sn Mirror Alloy'

The collection of metal mirrors of the Golden Horde period of the Mangup hillfort, situated in the south-western part of the Crimea, includes 19 items. The chemical composition of 17 mirrors was studied using an M1 Mistral (Bruker) X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The measurements were carried out at three points on the front and back sides of the mirrors. Averages were calculated for each side. According to the results of the analysis, the mirrors are made of pewter bronze with additives of lead. The content of pewter in the alloy of mirrors from Mangup ranged from 10 to 38%. The share of lead was 1-17%. Analysis of dopants made it possible to distinguish three types of alloys. 11 mirrors are made of pewter-lead bronze (Cu + Sn + Pb), 4 mirrors are made of pewter-lead-antimony bronze (Cu + Sn + Pb + Sb), 1 mirror is made of tin-lead-zinc bronze (Cu + Sn + Pb + Zn). The differences between the identified types of alloys probably reflect formula variations of the “mirror” alloy composition within the unified craft tradition. The comparison of the chemical composition of the studied mirrors with the items from other regions gave the following results. The closest analogies to mirrors from Mangup were found on the territory of the Volga and Don rivers regions. Their alloy contains similar proportions of the main components. The only difference is the set of ore impurities. The results of the analysis of the chemical composition suggest the producing of Mangup mirrors in the Volga region. The morphological and stylistic similarities of mirrors from both regions can be considered as an additional argument in favor of this thesis.

Dacian civilization flourished on the actual territory of Romania during the Late Iron Age and had its peak from the first century BC to the first century AD. They had intensive relations with Hellenistic and Roman civilizations. Therefore, it is difficult to evaluate the origin of some widely spread artifacts discovered in the Dacian archeological sites. The present research is focused on two bronze artifacts (a bronze coin and a mirror fragment) found in the Alun-Piatra Rosie site and a silver coin found in the Ardeu site. Artifacts were investigated with nondestructive methods such as SEM-EDX for microstructural and elemental characterization, and the crystalline phases were investigated using XRD. Bronze coin proves to be an Istrian issue having an elemental composition of 75.0% Cu, 20.8% Sn, and 4.1% Pb, which corresponds to a structure of Cu grains mixed with Cu5.6Sn grains. The bronze mirror fragment has an elemental composition of 52.3% Cu and 47.7% Sn, which corresponds to a structure containing grains of Cu6Sn5 mixed with grains of Cu41Sn11. It has a smooth surface that was investigated with AFM microscopy, which evidences a Ra roughness of 51 nm for the patina surface and 33.7 nm for the clean metal surface, proving the high quality of the original mirror luster of the artifact. The silver coin was identified as a Radulesti–Hunedoara type meaning that it was produced in local Dacian metallurgic workshops. It has an elemental composition of 63.1% Ag, 25.3% Sn, 7.8% Cu, and small traces of P and Fe, which corresponds to a structure of Ag grains and Ag3Sn grains. Silver coins show that Dacians uses Sn as alloying element in their metallurgic workshops. Istrian bronze coin proves to be typical for Hellenistic or Roman bronze type with Sn content no more than 25% Sn. The bronze mirror fragment has an unusual composition that might be a result of al local metal charge elaboration with several Hellenistic and Roman bronze pieces as raw material and an extra Sn addition during the melting process. This material facilitates the polishing properties of the active surface that has a very low roughness even after 2000 years of ground resting and adherent oxides patina.

This study analyzed the microstructures and chemical composition of three samples of bronze mirrors excavated in the Jeollanam-do region, particularly Goheung and Damyang. Under x-ray irradiation, the analysis results confirmed the broken parts and pores caused by cracks, casting, and corrosion. Major and minor elemental analysis were performed on three mirrors by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with Energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and Inductively coupled plasma mass spe ctrome try (ICP-MS). The re sult shows that the bronze mirrors containe d Cu-Sn-Pb alloys. Alpha phase and eutectic phase were observed in the microstructure, confirming that the casting was performed without additional heat treatment. Notably, Three bronze mirrors were made early Three Kingdoms period in Korea.

Metallography, SEM-EDS, and Raman Micro-Spectroscopy analysis were conducted on bronze dirk, bronze sword, and bronze mirror excavated from the pit tomb No. 1-1 at 12th Point of Osong Site in Cheongju to study the manufacturing techniques and corrosion properties. The bronze dirk, bronze sword and bronze mirror are judged to be binary alloys of Cu(79.16∼79.89 wt%)-Sn (19.12∼20.34 wt%). The microstructure is a cast structure composed of δ phase and (α+δ) eutectoid, and no heat treatment was performed. As a result of classifying the corrosion characteristics, it was confirmed that the bronze dirk, bronze sword, bronze mirror were Type I. As a result of EDS analysis in subsurface area, tin oxide is located as a selective corrosion of (α+δ) eutectoid, and as a result of Raman Micro-Spectroscopy analysis, corrosion products of Cassiterite and Malachite were identified for the bronze dirk and Cassiterite for bronze sword and bronze mirror. The secondary metallic copper was mainly present in the hole left by corrosion of Pb particles and on the (α+δ) eutectoid, and was found to be 100.00 wt% of Cu as a result of the analysis, confirming that all of them were high-purity copper.

Electropolishing of metal surfaces is a benign alternative to mechanical treatment. Ionic liquids are considered as green electrolytes for the electropolishing of metals. They demonstrate a number of advantages in comparison with acid aqueous solutions and other methods of producing smooth or mirror-like surfaces that are required by diverse applications (medical instruments, special equipment, implants and prostheses, etc.). A wide window of electrochemical stability, recyclability, stability and tunability are just a few benefits provided by ionic liquids in the title application. An overview of the literature data on electropolishing of such metals as Ti, Ni, Pt, Cu, Al, U, Sn, Ag, Nb, stainless steel and other alloys in ionic liquids is presented.

ABSTRACTMany ancient Chinese bronze mirrors have a smooth patina. An ingress of corrosion to a depth of approximately 100 μm is found beneath the patina. The corrosion selectively replaces the Cu-rich α phase leaving the Sn-rich σ phase intact. Previous work by x-ray diffraction has shown that the a-phase replacement product is poorly crystallized or nanocrystalline SnO2. Transmission electron microscopy was employed to further characterize the replacement product in both ancient mirror and replication samples. Nanocrystalline SnO, in the form of small spheroids has been found. Remnants of an original alloy phase appear to be interspersed with the tin oxide.

AbstractMany ancient Chinese bronze mirrors have survived with a patina that leaves the delicate relief surface decorations intact. The microstructure of these ancient mirrors is two-phase and consists of acicular α-phase (Cu-rich) regions encased in a δ-phase (Sn-rich) matrix. At the surface, there is evidence of selective dissolution of the α-phase; the α-phase regions are replaced pseudomorphically by a mineral product with the δ -phase remaining metallic. Electrochemical polarization has been used to drive the copper dealloying process in modern, cast bronze. Synchrotron x-ray diffraction was employed to compare the ancient samples with those that were prepared potentiostatically. Poorly crystallized tin oxide (SnO2) was found in the α - replacement products of both sample types. The corrosion-resistance of the potentiostatically-treated bronze samples was tested by atmospheric exposure. Comparison with exposed, untreated samples indicated that the treatment was protective.

The growing demand for energy is an important issue for the existence and development of humankind. In order to reduce the impact of conventional energy sources on the environment, attention should be paid to the development of new and renewable energy resources. Solar energy is a major environment friendly, renewable and sustainable energy source. Subsequently, with increasing drying up of the terrestrial fossil fuel, solar energy will potentially become an important part of the future energy structure. Concentrated solar power (CSP) technology is a productive way to make effective utilization of thermal energy from sun. Consequently, exploring high efficiency CSP technology is necessary. This has motivated the development of spectrally selective reflector and absorber materials. Recently, reflectors have attracted considerable attention due to their potential application in CSP system. Reflector failure due to the formation of an oxide layer on metallic surfaces has been widely recognized as a major issue, often leading to CSP plant failure. Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) mirrors, having lustrous reflective surface, were one of the candidate materials for traditional antique mirrors from ancient times. However, research involving these intermetallic materials for reflector application is still limited. The important drawbacks for these materials include complex processing conditions, brittleness, physical and chemical properties like oxidation, wettability etc. The phase composition, surface properties, free electrons density and hence the plasma frequency plays a critical role in controlling the reflectance of any materials. To this end, the main focus of this work was to develop reflector materials from alloys of Cu-Sn, Cu-Al, Cu-Sn-Zn or Cu-Sn-Al system and to understand the composition dependence reflectance properties of both bulk alloys and thin films of varying thickness. In this perspective, the present dissertation demonstrates how one can adopt an alloy design approach to develop bulk optical reflector materials. Extending this to coatings, the efficacy of electrodeposition and thermal evaporation was also illustrated to show thickness dependent reflectance property. The importance of the development of new reflector materials for CSP technology is highlighted in chapter 1. The necessary theoretical fundamentals i.e., the physics aspect of the reflector functionality together with a review of the existing materials for reflector application are summarized in chapter 2. The general description of various experimental methodologies is made in chapter 3. The first part of the present dissertation involves bulk alloy development and second part describes film fabrication. In a few cases, the scratch resistance and the influence of dust and humidity of the environment were also investigated. Chapter 4 demonstrates our attempt to develop a reflector material in the bulk cast form. This chapter describes the development of bulk Cu-Sn intermetallic for application as a solar reflector and further tuning them with tailored substitution of Zn or Al. A conventional metallurgical route (non-equilibrium processing techniques like vacuum arc melting and chill casting) was adopted. The second part (chapter 5 and 6) deals with thin film synthesis. The studies on intermetallic coatings of Cu-Sn alloys by electrodeposition are presented in chapter 5. Further, Cu-Al thin film deposition by thermal evaporation is explained in chapter 6. Some brief highlights of the major chapters of this dissertation are summarized below. Chapter 4 mainly deals with the development of Cu-Sn intermetallic based solar reflector material, where further all substitution was performed using aluminium or zinc. Zinc was chosen due to its solid solution solubility with copper and aluminium was added because of its high plasma frequency. Chapter 4 essentially reports the rationale of reflector alloy design from a metallurgical and physics perspective. The results obtained with the baseline Cu41Sn11 intermetallic and other alloy compositions have been be analysed to bring out the influence of Al or Zn substitution to the baseline alloy. A detailed analysis of the phase assemblage utilizing Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction (XRD) data and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (WDS), attached to the electron probe micro analyser (EPMA) has been performed. The physical basis of higher reflectance has been explained on the basis of plasma frequency calculation of these alloy compositions. A good correlation between the phase abundance and plasma frequency was seen and is attributed to the high specular reflectance. Moreover, the Cu- 21.2 at % Al alloy composition, consisting of two phases Cu3Al (ωp = 6.47 x 1015 rad/sec) and Cu0.78Al0.22 (ωp = 19.25 x 1015 rad/sec) phases, exhibited 89.5% specular reflectance and 83% solar reflectance with roughness at nanometre level and a hardness of 2.1 GPa. These results establish the suitability of an alloy design approach to obtain a new class of intermetallic reflector materials with a tailored combination of bulk specular reflectance and hardness. Chapter 5 was focussed on the development of lustrous Cu-Sn coatings from an acidic sulfate based electrolyte containing electro generated metal ions. The deposition of individual metals and co-deposition of metals were carried out. Importantly, it has been demonstrated that lustrous coatings can be galvanostatically electrodeposited from acidic sulfate based electrolyte in the presence of Laprol as an additive. The intricate designing of Cu-Sn codeposition was illustrated by systematic changes in the deposition conditions, such as applied current, bath composition and time of deposition. The quantitative analysis of the phase assemblage as well as compositional analysis of different phases was conducted using SEMEDS and XRD based Rietveld analysis. The coating thickness dependent surface morphology and specular reflectance was established. Essentially, we evaluated the properties such as scratch hardness and scratch adhesion, effect of dust and humidity, in reference to the projected CSP applications. Importantly, the useful combination of ~ 80 % specular reflectance and scratch resistance of Cu41Sn11 film were demonstrated to be highly durable under local environmental conditions. In chapter 6, a facile fabrication of Cu-Al thin films on flex glass substrate was demonstrated by systematically varying the applied current and rate of deposition in a thermal evaporation route. The metallic Cu-Al ingot (obtained from arc melting) was heated in vacuum by applying current, and was thermally evaporated onto a flexible glass substrate to obtain the reflector coatings. In particular, the Cu0.78Al0.22 thin films with a plasma frequency ωp = 19.25 x 1015 rad/sec, were fabricated on flexible glass substrates by resistive thermal evaporation. An attempt was made to analyze the relationship among the phase compositions, surface morphology, thickness, surface coverage and optical properties. Importantly, flexible Cu0.78Al0.22 films with a specular reflectance of ~ 84 % in the solar region and scratch resistance at 900 mN load were obtained. It can be envisioned that with all these promising features, the Cu-Al films promise a great potential for use as highly reflective and flexible material for thin-film reflecting concentrators, solar energy devices and other optical mirrors.