Studying the effect of zeolite inclusion in aluminum alloy on measurement of its surface hardness using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technique

Abstract

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been used to study the surface hardness of special aluminum alloys containing zeolite. The aluminum alloy has acquired pronounced changes in its metallurgical properties due to the zeolite inclusion. The surface hardness of the samples under investigation is determined by measuring the spectral intensity ratios of the ionic to atomic spectral lines in the LIBS spectra of samples having different surface hardness values that have been conventionally measured before for comparison. The presence of aluminum silicate mineral in the studied alloys enabled material volume to expand under compression. This feature gave new results in the measurement of hardness via LIBS. It has been proven that the trend of the alloy density change complies with the increase of ionic to atomic spectral line intensity ratio.