The precipitation behavior, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of a novel Al-Zn-Mg-Sc-Zr alloy aged at different time were studied by optical microscopy（OM）, scanning electron microscopy（SEM）, transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, tensile tests, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results revealed that with increasing aging time at 120 ℃, the hardness and tensile strength of the alloy increased rapidly at first and then slightly decreased. The resistance of exfoliation corrosion（EXCO） and intergranular corrosion（IGC） increased gradually with increasing aging time. The same trend of corrosion properties was demonstrated by electrochemical polarization curves and EIS test. The characteristics of grain boundary precipitates and precipitate free zone（PFZ） had a significant influence on the mechanical and corrosion behaviors of the studied alloy. On the basis of TEM observations, the size of grain boundary precipitates and the width of PFZ became larger, and the distributed spacing of grain boundary precipitates was enhanced with increasing aging time.
Al86Ni7Y4.5Co1La1.5 （mole fraction, %） alloy powder was produced by argon gas atomization process. After high-energy ball milling, the powder was consolidated by vacuum hot press sintering and spark plasma sintering （SPS） under different process conditions. The microstructure and morphology of the powder and consolidated bulk sample were examined by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. It is shown that amorphous phase appears when ball milling time is more than 100 h, and the bulk sample consolidated by SPS can maintain amorphous/ nanocrystalline microstructure but has lower relative density. A compressive strength of 650 MPa of Al86Ni7Y4.5Co1La1.5 nanostructured samples is achieved by vacuum hot extrusion （VHE）.
Carbon nanotubes （CNTs） reinforced aluminum matrix composites were fabricated by mechanical milling followed by hot extrusion. The commercial Al-2024 alloy with 1% CNTs was milled under various ball milling conditions. Microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of the milled powder and consolidated bulk materials were examined by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM） and mechanical test. The effect of CNTs concentration and milling time on the microstructure of the CNTs/Al-2024 composites was studied. Based on the structural observation, the formation behavior of nanostructure in ball milled powder was discussed. The results show that the increment in the milling time and ration speed, for a fixed amount of CNTs, causes a reduction of the particle size of powders resulting from MM. The finest particle size was obtained after 15 h of milling. Moreover, the composite had an increase in tensile strength due to the small amount of CNTs addition.
The Al-5Ti-0.2C-based grain refiners with different contents of rare earth （RE） were successfully prepared via powder metallurgy and vacuum casting. The microstructural evolution has been studied by X-ray diffraction （XRD）, differential scanning calorimetry （DSC）, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. The results showed that the RE addition resulted in the formation of TiAl3/Ti2Al20RE core-shell structured primary particles, and the size of TiAl3 core decreased, while the thickness of Ti2Al20RE increased with increase of RE contents. As compared to Al-5Ti-0.2C grain refiner, the grain refining efficiency was gradually improved with increase of RE contents, which was mainly attributed to the TiAl3/Ti2Al20RE core-shell structured primary particles and insoluble TiC nuclei formed inα-Al matrix. The formation mechanism of core-shell structure was further investigated based on Ginstling-Brounstein model.
