No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
Cast silver-copper alloy objects form a significant part of the archaeological record of silver from at least the first millennium BC onwards but there has been little study of their microstructures. Wrought silver-copper alloys have been more extensively studied with a particular focus on the evidence for discontinuous precipitation of copper from supersaturated solid solution at ambient temperature over archaeological time and whether this could be used as an indicator or measure of age (see eg [1][2]). Studies of the cast alloys are hindered by the very fine scale of precipitation which forms within the grains over a broad range of cooling rates which challenges the resolving power of optical methods while there are significant experimental difficulties of determining orientation relationships using either X-ray methods or by transmission electron microscopy. The work presented here used a combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and optical microscopy (OM) to explore the range of microstructures represented in cast silver from archaeological contexts and compare them with those observed in modern cast silver with the aim of both improving our understanding of precipitation in these alloys and of finding out if this can provide information on the age of the artefact
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.