TY - JOUR
T1 - Additive manufacturing of an ultrastrong, deformable Al alloy with nanoscale intermetallics
AU - Shang, Anyu
AU - Stegman, Benjamin
AU - Choy, Kenyi
AU - Niu, Tongjun
AU - Shen, Chao
AU - Shang, Zhongxia
AU - Sheng, Xuanyu
AU - Lopez, Jack
AU - Hoppenrath, Luke
AU - Zhang, Bohua Peter
AU - Wang, Haiyan
AU - Bellon, Pascal
AU - Zhang, Xinghang
N1 - This work is supported primarily by NSF-DMR-MMN 2210152 (X.Z.). Access to the Electron Microscopy Facility center at Purdue University is also acknowledged. The ASTAR crystal orientation system in TEM microscope is supported by ONR-DURIP award N00014-17-1-2921 (H.W.). HW acknowledge support by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (Contract No N00014-22-1-2160 for TEM). Atom probe tomography was performed at the Materials Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign using a CAMECA LEAP 5000-XS instrument purchased with support from the NSF under Grant No. DMR-1828450 (P.B.). K.C. and P.B. thank Dr. Amit Verma for his expert assistance with the collection and analysis of atom probe data.
PY - 2024/12
Y1 - 2024/12
N2 - Light-weight, high-strength, aluminum (Al) alloys have widespread industrial applications. However, most commercially available high-strength Al alloys, like AA 7075, are not suitable for additive manufacturing due to their high susceptibility to solidification cracking. In this work, a custom Al alloy Al92Ti2Fe2Co2Ni2 is fabricated by selective laser melting. Heterogeneous nanoscale medium-entropy intermetallic lamella form in the as-printed Al alloy. Macroscale compression tests reveal a combination of high strength, over 700 MPa, and prominent plastic deformability. Micropillar compression tests display significant back stress in all regions, and certain regions have flow stresses exceeding 900 MPa. Post-deformation analyses reveal that, in addition to abundant dislocation activities in Al matrix, complex dislocation structures and stacking faults form in monoclinic Al9Co2 type brittle intermetallics. This study shows that proper introduction of heterogeneous microstructures and nanoscale medium entropy intermetallics offer an alternative solution to the design of ultrastrong, deformable Al alloys via additive manufacturing.
AB - Light-weight, high-strength, aluminum (Al) alloys have widespread industrial applications. However, most commercially available high-strength Al alloys, like AA 7075, are not suitable for additive manufacturing due to their high susceptibility to solidification cracking. In this work, a custom Al alloy Al92Ti2Fe2Co2Ni2 is fabricated by selective laser melting. Heterogeneous nanoscale medium-entropy intermetallic lamella form in the as-printed Al alloy. Macroscale compression tests reveal a combination of high strength, over 700 MPa, and prominent plastic deformability. Micropillar compression tests display significant back stress in all regions, and certain regions have flow stresses exceeding 900 MPa. Post-deformation analyses reveal that, in addition to abundant dislocation activities in Al matrix, complex dislocation structures and stacking faults form in monoclinic Al9Co2 type brittle intermetallics. This study shows that proper introduction of heterogeneous microstructures and nanoscale medium entropy intermetallics offer an alternative solution to the design of ultrastrong, deformable Al alloys via additive manufacturing.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-024-48693-4
DO - 10.1038/s41467-024-48693-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 38879562
AN - SCOPUS:85196031664
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 15
JO - Nature communications
JF - Nature communications
IS - 1
M1 - 5122
ER -