Enhanced strength and electrical conductivity of Al–0.3Ce alloy simultaneously with Ti(C,N) nanoparticle addition

Abstract

Ti(C,N) nanoparticles were added to an Al–0.3Ce alloy by ultrasonic treatment. Further annealing at 570 °C for 4 h afforded the ultimate tensile strength of 79 MPa and electrical conductivity of 64.0% IACS for the Al–0.3Ce alloy with 1.5 vol% Ti(C,N) addition. Both performance parameters were improved by 23.4% and 0.6% IACS, respectively, compared with those of casting refining pure aluminum (64 MPa and 63.4% IACS). This could be explained by the following reasons. The addition of Ti(C,N) nanoparticles could significantly refine the grain of Al–0.3Ce alloy. Notably, most of the coarse strip-shaped second phases distributed at the grain boundaries in Al–0.3Ce were also transformed into spherical microparticles distributed in the grains, with micro–nano hierarchical structures comprising orientated nanosized strip phases with lengths of ~ 400 nm and widths of ~ 100 nm. Moreover, a fine micro–nano hierarchical spherical structure could be obtained after annealing at 570 °C for 4 h. The numbers of micro–nano hierarchical spherical structures also increased due to the precipitation of pseudosolution Ce from the aluminum matrix during the annealing treatment.