Influences of ten kinds of less than 0.5 at% additional elements on the aging kinetics of Al–2.5 at% Zn and Al–2.5 at% Zn–2 at% Mg base alloys have been studied from the measurements of electrical resistivity and hardness and also electron microscope observations, and the mechanism is discussed with particular attention to the role of lattice defects.
The results are as follows:
(1) The rate of pre-precipitation in Al–Zn and Al–Zn–Mg alloys is reduced by the additions of Si, Sn (group a), Fe, Cr, Mn, Zr, V (group b) and Cu, Cd (group c), but is enhanced by Ag.
Precipitation hardening of Al–Zn–Mg alloys is also reduced by the additions of groups (a) and (b), but is increased by the pre-aging at low temperatures or by the additional elements of group (c) and Ag.
(2) The effect of group (a) may be interpreted from the fact that both elements have a larger binding energy with a vacancy than that between a Zn atom and a vacancy, and that they do not interact with Zn atoms but form intermetallic compounds with Mg atoms alone.
The effect of group (b) can be reasonably explained in terms of the increase in crystal defects such as dislocations, subboundaries, grain boundaries and insoluble compounds formed by these additional elements, whose boundaries act as vacancy sinks to reduce the concentration of quenched-in vacancies, rather than the existence of the binding energy between the solute atom and a vacancy.
Ag and the elements of group (c) participate in the formation of G.P. zones which act as the heterogeneous nucleation center for the fine M’ (MgZn
2) phase, resulting in the increase in the age-hardening of Al–Zn–Mg alloys at higher temperatures. In particular, the addition of more than 0.03 at% Ag also increases the rate of clustering of Zn and Mg atoms as well as the number of zones; this phenomenon is explained by the faster clustering rate of Ag atoms than that of Zn and Mg atoms during the quenching and the subsequent aging.
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