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Er-containing microalloyed aluminum alloys: a review

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Abstract

Microalloying has been an important method in aluminum alloy development for decades. Large number of papers have shown that the addition of trace element Erbium (Er) can effectively improve the comprehensive properties of aluminum alloys. Similar with the trace element Scandium (Sc), addition of trace element Er in aluminum alloys could form nano-sized L12-ordered Al3Er precipitates, which was coherent with the Al matrix. However, the dispersion precipitation strengthening effect of Al3Er was more significant than that of Al3Sc, at the same atomic content. In the case of the addition of both Er and Zr, core–shell-structured Al3(Er, Zr) precipitates formed instead of Al3Er precipitates. Those thermally-stable nanosized precipitates could significantly refine the grain size, retard the recrystallization, improve the mechanical properties and corrosion resistance. This paper reviewed several typical Er-containing microalloyed commercial aluminum alloys, like 2xxx (Al–Cu) alloys, 4xxx (Al–Si) alloys, 5xxx (Al–Mg) alloys, 7xxx (Al–Zn–Mg–Cu) alloys, as well as selective laser melting aluminum alloys.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the support from National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFB3704204, 2022YFB3705802, 2021YFB3700902, 2021YFB3704201, 2021YFB3704202 and 2021YFB3704205), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2202009), R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (KM 202110005010), Jiangsu Province Program for Commercialization of Scientific and Technological Achievements (BA2022029) and Program on Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Clad Materials (BM2014006).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials of Education Ministry of China, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

    Xiaolan Wu, Meng Sun, Liang Hong, Shengping Wen, Wu Wei, Kunyuan Gao, Li Rong, Xiangyuan Xiong, Hui Huang & Zuoren Nie

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XW contributed to Original writing the manuscript. MS, LH contributed to References searching and sorting. SW, WW, KG contributed to Reviewing and editing the manuscript and funding acquisition. LR, XX contributed to Preparation of data and figures. HH, ZN contributed to Supervision and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Zuoren Nie.

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Wu, X., Sun, M., Hong, L. et al. Er-containing microalloyed aluminum alloys: a review. J Mater Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-09185-w

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