The rapid advancements in electronics, electric vehicles, and green technologies have imposed increasingly stringent demands on copper-based materials. These requirements include high thermal and electricity conductivity, corrosion resistance, and strength properties at both room temperature and high temperatures. Rare-earth elements are excellent microalloying agents due to their typical metallic properties and highly active chemical characteristics; these properties and characteristics enable them to react with almost all elements except noble gases. The addition of rare-earth elements to copper and copper alloys can have several beneficial effects, such as impurity removal, purification, enhancement of the metallographic structure, and improved corrosion resistance. These effects can also raise the heat treatment temperature and enhance plastic processing, thereby further improving the overall properties of copper alloys. This review examines the influence of rare-earth elements (REEs) on copper and its alloys, along with their diverse industrial applications. It was found that elements such as La, Ce, Y, and Nd are commonly added to enhance properties like electrical conductivity, strength, corrosion resistance, purity, and hot workability in alloys such as pure copper, Cu-Ni-Si, Cu-Cr-Zr, and Cu-Fe-P. The review will lay a foundation and provide novel method for the development of advanced copper alloy.

A Cu-2.35Ni-0.69Si alloy with low La content was designed in order to study the role of La addition on microstructure evolution and comprehensive properties. The results indicate that the La element demonstrates a superior ability to combine with Ni and Si elements, via the formation of La-rich primary phases. Owing to existing La-rich primary phases, restricted grain growth was observed, due to the pinning effect during solid solution treatment. It was found that the activation energy of the Ni₂Si phase precipitation decreased with the addition of La. Interestingly, the aggregation and distribution of the Ni₂Si phase, around the La-rich phase, was observed during the aging process, owing to the attraction of Ni and Si atoms by the La-rich phase during the solid solution. Moreover, the mechanical and conductivity properties of aged alloy sheets suggest that the addition of the La element showed a slight reducing effect on the hardness and electrical conductivity. The decrease in hardness was due to the weakened dispersion and strengthening effect of the Ni₂Si phase, while the decrease in electrical conductivity was due to the enhanced scattering of electrons by grain boundaries, caused by grain refinement. More notably, excellent thermal stabilities, including better softening resistance ability and microstructural stability, were detected for the low-La-alloyed Cu-Ni-Si sheet, owing to the delayed recrystallization and restricted grain growth caused by the La-rich phases.

The thin-wall heat pipe is an efficient heat transfer component that has been widely used in the field of heat dissipation of high-power electronic equipment in recent years. In this study, the orange peel morphology defect of thin-wall heat pipes after bending deformation was analyzed both for the macro-3D profile and for the micro-formation mechanism. The morphology and crystal orientations of the grains and annealing twins were carefully characterized utilizing optical metallography and the electron backscatter diffraction technique. The results show that after high-temperature sintering treatment, the matrix grains of the heat pipe are seriously coarsened and form a strong Goss texture, while certain annealing twins with the unique copper orientation are retained. The distribution of the Schmid factor value subjected to the uniaxial stress indicates that inhomogeneity in the intergranular deformation exists among the annealing twins and matrix grains. The annealing twin exhibits a “hard-oriented” component during the deformation; thus, it plays a role as a barrier and hinders the slipping of dislocation. As the strain accumulates, part of the annealing twins may protrude from the surface of the heat pipe, forming a large-scale fluctuation of the surface as the so-called “orange peel” morphology. The 3D profile shows the bulged twins mostly perpendicular to the drawing direction, about 200–300 in width and 10–20 μm in height.

This study systematically investigated the influence of Te content (0.18, 0.4, and 0.57 wt%) and aging treatment on the mechanical strength and electrical conductivity of Cu‐ x Te‐0.3Cr alloys ( x  = 0.18, 0.4, and 0.57 wt%). After controllled aging at 300°C–550°C for 1 h, the alloys developed a tailored multiscale microstructure consisting of nanoscale Cr precipitates, microscale Cr phases, bar‐shaped secondary Cu ₂ Te dispersoids, and dense dislocation networks. This hierarchical microstructure integrates precipitates across nanometer to micrometer scales, dislocation configurations, and grain status, collectively governing the alloy's strength‐conductivity synergy. The results revealed that increasing Te content significantly promoted the formation of Cu ₂ Te precipitates, with the quantity and size of these phases exhibiting a strong dependence on Te content. The aging process further induced dense dislocation networks and refined the precipitates, thereby facilitating synergistic strengthening mechanisms. Peak performance was achieved in the Cu‐0.4Te‐0.3Cr alloy after aged at 500°C for 1 h, which attained a Vickers hardness of HV 147 and an electrical conductivity of 85.58% IACS. These enhancements are attributed to the synergistic effects of precipitation strengthening (from coherent nanoscale Cr precipitates and Cu ₂ Te dispersoids) and dislocation pinning. This combination effectively impedes dislocation motion while reducing lattice distortion to maintain electron transport efficiency. This work provides a strategic framework for designing high‐performance Cu‐Te‐Cr alloys with optimized strength‐conductivity synergy via tailored multiscale microstructures, thereby advancing their application potential in demanding scenarios such as high‐current connectors for next‐generation energy technologies.

A machine learning‐assisted framework was developed to investigate the relationship between microstructure and corrosion behavior of high‐purity 63/37 brass in fluoride containing solution. A dataset was established based on microstructural characterization and potentiostatic polarization tests. Among nine machine learning algorithms, XGBoost achieved the best predictive performance. SHAP and ICE analyses identified α‐phase size differential and α‐phase size as the dominant factors controlling the stable current density, whereas β‐phase content showed limited influence. Exhaustive enumeration and PSO identified favorable microstructural regions and a candidate configuration with low predicted I _stable . The proposed framework provides quantitative guidance for designing corrosion‐resistant brass microstructures in fluoride‐containing environments.