Stability of nanostructured : amorphous aluminum-manganese alloys

Abstract

Nanocrystalline alloys have attracted interest for decades because of their improved mechanical strength without sacrificing ductility, but structural stability has always been an issue. In this work, bulk aluminum-manganese (Al-Mn) nanocrystalline alloys have been synthesized using room temperature ionic liquid electrodeposition, by which various nanostructures and dual-phase structures can be created by controlling the Mn solute incorporation level. The manganese exhibits grain boundary segregation in the Al-Mn solid solution in the as-deposited condition, which contributes to enhanced stability of the nanostructure. The grain boundary properties of the nanostructured alloys were studied via three dimensional atom probe tomography and aberration-corrected scanning electron microscopy. The segregation energies were calculated based on the experimental results and compared with the values calculated from a thermodynamic-based segregation model. Upon heating of the nanostructured and dual-phase alloys, a variety of complex phase transformations occur. A combination of X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, as well as differential scanning calorimetry were employed to understand the phase transformation mechanisms and grain growth processes. A Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov analytical model was proposed as a descriptive method to explain the phase transformation sequence. Using the parameters extracted from the analytical model, predictive time-temperature transformation diagrams were constructed. The stability region of the alloy in time-temperature space is thus established, providing a simple way to evaluate nanostructure stability.