Interfacial Reaction during Friction Stir Welding of Al and Cu

Commercially pure copper was joined to a 1050 aluminum alloy by friction stir welding. A specific configuration where the tool pin was fully located in the aluminum plate was chosen. In such a situation, there is no mechanical mixing between the two materials, but frictional heating gives rise to a significant thermally activated interdiffusion at the copper/aluminum interface. This gives rise to the formation of defect-free joints where the bonding is achieved by a very thin intermetallic layer at the Cu/Al interface. Nanoscaled grains within this bonding layer were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Two phases were identified, namely, Al₂Cu and Al₄Cu₉ phases. The nucleation and growth of these two phases are discussed and compared to the standard reactive interdiffusion reactions between Cu and Al.