Thermal analysis and microstructure of the as-cast Ag–Bi–Cu alloys

The Ag–Bi–Cu system is one of the ternary alloy systems that until now is not fully experimentally studied. The literature survey indicated that the experimental data on this system are scarce. In this study the DTA method was employed to study phase transitions with temperature in Ag–Bi–Cu alloys. The measurements were performed on samples of constant silver to bismuth mole fraction ratio 4:1, 1:1, 1:4, respectively, and varying copper content. Selected as-cast samples were subjected to SEM-EDS analysis of the microstructure. The results obtained are discussed with phase transition temperatures calculated based on the data of binaries from the literature.