A Novel Al-Cu Composite with Ultra-High Strength at 350 °C via Dual-Phase Particle Reinforced Submicron-Structure

Kewei Xie; Jinfeng Nie; Chang Liu; Wenhao Cha; Ge Wu; Xiangfa Liu; Sida Liu

doi:10.1002/advs.202207208

A Novel Al-Cu Composite with Ultra-High Strength at 350 °C via Dual-Phase Particle Reinforced Submicron-Structure

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2023 Sep;10(25):e2207208. doi: 10.1002/advs.202207208. Epub 2023 Jul 11.

Authors

Kewei Xie¹, Jinfeng Nie², Chang Liu³, Wenhao Cha⁴, Ge Wu⁵, Xiangfa Liu¹, Sida Liu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, Shandong University, Jinan, 250061, China.
² Nano and Heterogeneous Materials Center, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094, China.
³ Center for Alloy Innovation and Design (CAID), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
⁴ Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany.
⁵ Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale and Hysitron Applied Research Center in China, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
⁶ Laboratory for multiscale mechanics and medical science, SV LAB, School of Aerospace, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.

Abstract

Thermal stability determines a material's ability to maintain its performance at desired service temperatures. This is especially important for aluminum (Al) alloys, which are widely used in the commercial sector. Herein, an ultra-strong and heat-resistant Al-Cu composite is fabricated with a structure of nano-AlN and submicron-Al₂ O₃ particles uniformly distributed in the matrix. At 350 °C, the (8.2AlN+1Al₂ O₃ )_p /Al-0.9Cu composite achieves a high strength of 187 MPa along with a 4.6% ductility under tension. The high strength and good ductility benefit from strong pinning effect on dislocation motion and grain boundary sliding by uniform dispersion of nano-AlN particles, in conjunction with the precipitation of Guinier-Preston (GP) zones, enhancing strain hardening capacity during plastic deformation. This work can expand the selection of Al-Cu composites for potential applications at service temperatures as high as ≈350 °C.

Keywords: Guinier-Preston zones; aluminum matrix composites; high-temperature strength; nano-AlN particles; submicron-Al2O3 particles.

Abstract

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