Effect of Chemical Composition on the Microstructure, Hardness and Electrical Conductivity Profiles of the Ag-Bi-Ge Alloys

Microstructure, hardness and electrical properties of the selected ternary Ag-Bi-Ge alloys were investigated in this study. Isothermal sections of the Ag-Bi-Ge system at 25, 100 and 500 °C have been extrapolated using optimized thermodynamic parameters from literature and experimentally investigated. Performed experiments were optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), hardness measurements by Brinell method and electrical conductivity measurements. EDS results were compared with predicted phase equilibria and good overall agreement between experimental and calculated values was obtained. XRD results were also in agreement with predicted phase equilibria. Hardness and electrical conductivity of selected alloys were measured and by using appropriated mathematical model these properties were predicted in the whole composition range.