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Highly stable coherent nanoprecipitates via diffusion-dominated solute uptake and interstitial ordering

Nature Materials volume 22, pages 434–441 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Lightweight design strategies and advanced energy applications call for high-strength Al alloys that can serve in the 300‒400 °C temperature range. However, the present commercial high-strength Al alloys are limited to low-temperature applications of less than ~150 °C, because it is challenging to achieve coherent nanoprecipitates with both high thermal stability (preferentially associated with slow-diffusing solutes) and large volume fraction (mostly derived from high-solubility and fast-diffusing solutes). Here we demonstrate an interstitial solute stabilizing strategy to produce high-density, highly stable coherent nanoprecipitates (termed the V phase) in Sc-added Al–Cu–Mg–Ag alloys, enabling the Al alloys to reach an unprecedented creep resistance as well as exceptional tensile strength (~100 MPa) at 400 °C. The formation of the V phase, assembling slow-diffusing Sc and fast-diffusing Cu atoms, is triggered by coherent ledge-aided in situ phase transformation, with diffusion-dominated Sc uptake and self-organization into the interstitial ordering of early-precipitated Ω phase. We envisage that the ledge-mediated interaction between slow- and fast-diffusing atoms may pave the way for the stabilization of coherent nanoprecipitates towards advanced 400 °C-level light alloys, which could be readily adapted to large-scale industrial production.

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Fig. 1: Highly stable nanoprecipitates in the Sc-microalloyed alloy.
Fig. 2: Unprecedented mechanical properties at 400 °C.
Fig. 3: Strong crystal structure with interstitial Sc ordering.
Fig. 4: In situ phase transformation via diffusion-dominated Sc uptake and interstitial ordering.

Data availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and Supplementary Information files. Additional images are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos 51790482, 52071253, 52001249 and 52271115) and the 111 Project of China (BP0618008). This work was also supported by the International Joint Laboratory for Micro/Nano Manufacturing and Measurement Technologies. Y.P. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51801087). We acknowledge experimental assistance from S. W. Guo, W. Wang and J. Li (Xi’an Jiaotong University). We sincerely acknowledge discussions with R. H. Wang (Xi’an University of Technology) and J. Kuang (Xi’an Jiaotong University) on crystal structure. We thank H. Li and W. Q. Liu (Shanghai University) for their help with APT experiments. We also thank the High Performance Computing Center and Instrumental Analysis Center of Xi’an Jiaotong University for help with simulations and experiments.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Hang Xue, Chong Yang, Frederic De Geuser.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Hang Xue, Chong Yang, Peng Zhang, Jinyu Zhang, Fuzhu Liu, Gang Liu & Jun Sun

  2. CNRS, Grenoble INP, SIMaP, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France

    Frederic De Geuser & Alexis Deschamps

  3. School of Materials and Energy and Electron Microscopy Centre of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Bin Chen & Yong Peng

  4. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Jianjun Bian

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Contributions

G.L., A.D. and J.S. initiated and supervised the project. H.X. and C.Y. prepared the alloys and carried out most of the microscopy and all the mechanical property testing. F.D.G. performed the SAXS experiments and data analysis. H.X., C.Y., P.Z. and J.Z. performed the APT examination and data analysis. B.C. and Y.P. performed the HAADF examinations. F.L. and J.B. performed the DFT calculations. All authors extensively discussed the data. G.L., F.D.G., A.D. and J.S. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gang Liu, Alexis Deschamps or Jun Sun.

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Nature Materials thanks Dmitry Eskin, Amit Shyam and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–27, Tables 1 and 2 and Notes 1–7.

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Xue, H., Yang, C., De Geuser, F. et al. Highly stable coherent nanoprecipitates via diffusion-dominated solute uptake and interstitial ordering. Nat. Mater. 22, 434–441 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01420-0

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