作者:Kaichi Saito、Hiroshi Kaneki
DOI:10.1016/j.jallcom.2013.05.131
日期:2013.10
Precipitates formed in an Mg-0.5at%Ce alloy during age-hardening at certain temperatures ranging between 180 degrees C and 250 degrees C have been thoroughly investigated by a combined technique of TEM and HAADF-STEM. The precipitation sequence can be presented as Mg-solid solution -> GP-zone -> beta(1) (Mg-3-Ce; BiF3-type) -> beta (Mg12Ce; Mn12Th-type). At an early stage of aging (180 degrees C for 2 h), fine precipitates of planar GP-zone with an ordered structure appear in parallel to (100)(m) planes of the Mg-matrix, having a thickness of sub-nm and an extension of 5-15 nm. With an advance of aging, the GP-zones increasingly grow larger and combine with the neighbors. When the GP-zones have reached as large as approximately 20 nm in diameter, the age-hardening effect is maximized (180 degrees C for 70 h). After the top-aging, the GP-zones begin to decompose and disappear, and instead precipitates of two other phases, i.e. the beta(1)- and the beta-phase come into sight in the matrix with definite crystallographic orientation relations of [0 0 1](m)// [1 1 0](beta 1)//[1 0 0](beta) and (1 1 0)(m)//(1 1 1)(beta 1)//(0 1 0)(beta), finally completing the aging effect with full of coarse beta-precipitates. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.