Nano-Treating Promoted Natural Aging Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloys

Journal of Composites Science

Jie Yuan¹  Xiaochun Li¹  Narayanan Murali¹  Shuaihang Pan²  Shuai Wang³  Jiaxing Li³  Qian Liu³  Mingjie Xu⁴ 

[1] Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA;Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China;Materials Research Institute, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA;

关键词: nature aging;    Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy;    nano-treating;    TiC nanoparticles;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jcs6040114

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Natural aging reduces the cost of alloy manufacturing while saving input energy but takes too long to complete for most Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys. Research has proved that nano-treating can facilitate precipitation in heat-treatable alloys. In this study, nano-treated Al-6.0Zn-2.6Mg-xCu samples containing different Cu contents were fabricated to investigate the influence of nano-treating on natural aging. TiC nanoparticles were used for nano-treating. Three cooling conditions after solution treatment (water quenching, air cooling, and as-cast) were investigated to check their quench sensitivities. The study shows the alloy’s microstructure was modified by nano-treating, and the growth of dendritic arms was inhibited. Compared to the control samples, nano-treating also increased both the microhardness and tensile strength of the alloy after natural aging. Out of the three different solution treatments, the air-cooled samples presented the highest UTS and microhardness values. The precipitation process was sped up by nano-treating by approximately 50%, and a higher volume fraction of GPII zones were formed in the nano-treated samples. HRTEM results also confirm the formation of more GPI and GPII zones in a nano-treated samples. With the help of natural aging, the Al-6.0Zn-2.6Mg-0.5Cu alloy reached a UTS of 455.7 ± 40.2 MPa and elongation of 4.52 ± 1.34% which makes it a great candidate for a naturally aged Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown