Articles comprising heterogeneous and thermally stable grain-refined alloys

An elongated article comprising:

• (i) a substrate defining a size and a shape of the article, the substrate comprising a polymeric material with or without particulate addition having an electrical conductivity of <1 S/m at 20° C.;
• (ii) at least one electrically conductive metallizing layer in intimate contact with the polymeric material and having a thickness of no more than 12.5 microns and having an electrical conductivity of >104 S/m at 20° C.;
• (iii) at least one electrically conductive intermediate layer in intimate contact with the metallizing layer, the at least one conductive intermediate layer having a thickness of no more than 25 microns and having an electrical conductivity of ≥104 S/m at 20° C.;
• (iv) a structural metallic material layer in intimate contact with the metallizing layer or the conductive intermediate layer and having a thickness of at least 25 microns and an electrical conductivity of ≥106 S/m at 20° C.;
• (v) the structural metallic material layer comprising a heterogeneous electrodeposited metallic alloy layer consisting of:
• (a) a microcrystalline grain structure with the average grain-size in the range of 2 to 1,000 nm;
• (b) at least two metallic elements selected from the group consisting of Co, Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn;
• (c) each of said at least two metallic elements comprising at least 5% per weight of the total metallic alloy composition;
• (d) at least one non-metallic element selected from the group consisting of B, O, P and S;
• (e) said non-metallic elements in total comprising between 50 ppm and 10,000 ppm per weight of the total metallic alloy composition;
• (f) wherein the hardness of said electrodeposited metallic alloy layer after heat-treatment for 12 hours at a temperature of 100° C. in an inert atmosphere retains at least 90% of the as-deposited hardness;
• (g) wherein said heterogeneous electrodeposited metallic alloy layer being compositionally graded and/or layered in the deposition direction;
• (h) wherein at least one of the chemical elements varies by at least 5% in the deposition direction and/or along a length of the article;
• and
• (i) wherein the electrodeposited metallic alloy layer comprises P and O, P is in elemental form having an oxidation state of zero and is an alloying element with the electrodeposited metallic alloy layer, the metallic alloy composition includes [PO3]3− and less than 90 ppm of P is present in the form of [PO3]3−;
• (i) wherein the heterogeneous electrodeposited metallic alloy layer contains no particulate additions.

An article comprising:

• a heterogeneous electrodeposited metallic alloy layer, a composition of the metallic alloy layer consisting of:
• (i) a microcrystalline grain structure with an average grain-size in the range of 2 to 1,000 nm;
• (ii) two metallic elements consisting of Co and Ni, and each of said metallic elements comprising at least 5% per weight of the metallic alloy composition;
• (iii) a non-metallic element consisting of P comprising between 100 ppm and 20,000 ppm per weight of the metallic alloy composition, wherein P is in elemental form having an oxidation state of zero, and is an alloying element with the electrodeposited metallic alloy layer;
• (iv) particulates in the range of 0 to 95% per volume;
• (v) wherein said heterogeneous electrodeposited metallic alloy layer being compositionally graded and/or layered in the deposition direction;
• (vi) wherein the concentration of at least one of the chemical elements varies by at least 5% in the deposition direction and/or along a length of the article;
• and
• (vii) wherein if the composition of the metallic alloy layer includes at least one additional non-metallic element consisting of O comprising between 50 ppm and 20,000 ppm per weight of the metallic alloy composition, the metallic alloy composition includes [PO3]3− and less than 75 ppm of P is present in the form of [PO3]3−.