Relationships between mechanical strength and electrical conductivity for Cu–Ag filamentary microcomposites

Cu–Ag filamentary microcomposites with various Ag contents, alloying additions and ingot annealing processes were prepared by vacuum casting and cold drawing. The strength and conductivity were measured at different drawing strain degrees. High conductivity tends to connect to low strength for the microcomposites with different Ag content, alloying addition and annealing process. Increasing Ag concentration, adding constituents Zr and Cr, or using low ingot annealing temperature can improve the strength but impair the conductivity. Alloying additions or ingot annealing processes affect the relationships between the strength and conductivity more significantly than that of Ag concentration. The strengthening benefit is mainly from interface obstacle and dispersive precipitation while conducting loss is mainly from lattice distortion and interface scattering. An approximate expression to predict the relationships between the strength and conductivity is deduced from the interface strengthening and scattering model.