Brittle fracture of Cu-30 Au induced by a surface layer

A dealloyed surface layer formed on Cu-30 Au with zero applied stress by anodic polarization in 0.6 M NaCl was found to be capable of inducing intergranular fracture of the normally ductile substrate during impact loading. If the sample was simultaneously stressed and dealloyed, the fracture mode was transgranular cleavage. This paper reports that the results indicate that the mechanisms of intergranular stress corrosion cracking and transgranular stress corrosion cracking of Cu-30 Au are identical