Metallurgical aspects of high-palladium alloys.

Nine commercial high-Pd alloys were investigated. Microstructure and phase composition were screened by x-ray diffraction, light microscopy, and an electron microprobe. After being etched, some high-Pd alloys revealed dendritic structures. The others showed a more homogeneous structure with distinct grain boundaries. Etching was necessary to reveal distinct structures, though the overall etching effect turned out to be limited. On unetched specimens, only a slight chemical heterogeneity could be determined. Except for one alloy, the systems turned out to have complex multi-phase structures. The main face-centered-cubic (fcc) phase was Pd-based. As secondary phases, body-centered-cubic (bcc) and/or simple cubic ones were detected. The latter phases were similar to a Cu3Ga and PdGa intermetallic compound, respectively. Face-centered-tetragonal (fct) structures reported by other investigators were not found.