Open AccessImproving the strength-ductility trade-off of TiB2/Al-4.5%Cu composites via Mg–Ag microalloying and multi-step heat treatment
Author(s) -
Yanqing Xue,
Qitang Hao,
Bo Li,
Xinliang Wang,
Chengze Yin,
Han Zhang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
materials research express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2053-1591
DOI - 10.1088/2053-1591/ac0264
Subject(s) - materials science , ductility (earth science) , ultimate tensile strength , composite material , elongation , yield (engineering) , dislocation , metallurgy , creep
To surmount the longstanding puzzle of strength-ductility trade-off, efforts had been made to apply Mg - Ag microalloying on 5%TiB 2 /Al-4.5%Cu composites by in situ molten salt reaction and subsequent heat treatment. The obtained composites achieve an eye-catching tensile elongation ( δ ) of 6.1 ± 0.4%, while maintaining elevated ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of 497 ± 4 MPa and yield strength (YS) of 401 ± 3MPa. Comprehensive characterization demonstrated that the uniformly distributed TiB 2 particles together with semi-coherent grain boundaries between the α -Al matrix and reinforcement phase (TiB 2 particles, Ω-Al 2 Cu, σ -Al 5 Cu 6 Mg 2 ) facilitated the dislocation motion integrally, which eliminated the stress concentrations, may be the main reason for amelioration in the strength-ductility trade-off of the composites when subject to rigorous multi-step heat treatment.