Development and Characterization of Al-15%Mo Binary Alloys

In this work, a binary Al-Mo alloy was made from aluminum and molybdenum elementary powder. The carefully homogenized samples were mechanically compacted to obtain a pastille of circular cross section (Φ=15 mm X 10 mm) under a load of 10 tons. Subsequently, the Al-Mo sample was melted in a high-frequency induction melting furnace. The resulting sample was polished and etched with a Keller reagent. The sample was subjected to metallographic observation on an optical and scanning electron microscope. An EDS analysis was performed on the different areas of the microstructure. A diffraction X-ray characterization was also performed in order to identify the different existing phases. This study showed that the studied alloy presents a microstructure with needle-like and plate-like precipitations of different sizes homogeneously distributed and randomly oriented. The EDS microanalysis showed the presence of the Al-5Mo phase and an alpha aluminum matrix with a proportion of molybdenum. X-ray diffraction revealed the presence of several AL-Mo phases’ namely alpha aluminum, molybdenum, Al 12 Mo, Al 8 Mo 3 and Al 3 Mo.