Abstract: In this paper, internal oxidation kinetics and the diffusion mechanism of oxygen in sintered Cu-Al alloy have been studied by means of scanning electron microscopy,transmission electron microscopy and heat-weighting scales. The results show that the kinetic curves obey the parabolic law in the initial stage and are linear in the late stage.The oxygen atoms are mainly transported in the from of grain boundary diffusion and volume diffusion in the process of internal oxidation. The plastic deformation of Cu matrix around oxide particles increases the probability of [O] atoms moving in accordance with dislocation diffusion mechanism. Meanwhile, the activation energy and diffusion coefficient in the process of internal oxidation are evaluated by means of kinetic method so as to obtain the velocity equations of reacting interface moving in different stage.

Key words: Cu-Al alloy, internal oxidation, diffusion