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Optimizing thermal stability and mechanical behavior in segregation-engineered nanocrystalline Al–Ni–Ce alloys: A combinatorial study

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Abstract

The deliberate use of solute enrichment at grain boundaries, otherwise known as segregation engineering, is a promising approach to tailor the properties of interface-dominated materials such as nanocrystalline alloys. The ensuing chemical and structural evolution at grain boundaries can give rise to thermal stability and excellent mechanical properties, but the interplay between enrichment, phase decomposition, grain growth, and mechanical behavior exists in a vast composition and processing space. In this study, a combinatorial synthesis and rapid characterization approach was applied to segregation-engineered nanocrystalline Al–Ni–Ce alloys to assess the evolution of microstructure and resulting mechanical behavior as functions of alloying content and annealing conditions. In addition to the identification of alloys and processing conditions that give rise to exceptional thermal stability, strength retention, and homogeneous plastic flow, we construct combined thermal stability and deformation mechanism maps that demarcate several important regimes of behavior.

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Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Advanced Manufacturing Office Award Number DE‐EE0009114. GHB acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. 1650114. This work employed the MRL Shared Experimental Facilities at UC Santa Barbara, which are supported by the MRSEC Program of the NSF under Award No. DMR 1720256; a member of the NSF-funded Materials Research Facilities Network (www.mrfn.org).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA

    Jungho Shin, Fulin Wang, Glenn H. Balbus & Daniel S. Gianola

  2. Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea

    Jungho Shin

  3. National Engineering Research Center of Light Alloy Net Forming, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Fulin Wang

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA

    Tianjiao Lei & Timothy J. Rupert

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  1. Jungho Shin
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Shin, J., Wang, F., Balbus, G.H. et al. Optimizing thermal stability and mechanical behavior in segregation-engineered nanocrystalline Al–Ni–Ce alloys: A combinatorial study. Journal of Materials Research 37, 3083–3098 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-022-00715-x

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