Design of a in-situ crystallization inoculant of Al–Cu alloys by addition of lanthanum

Abstract

Previously, a new approach to refine α-Al grains in Al Alloys by the in-situ crystallization ZrCuAlNi metallic glasses was reported by us. A significant refining effect can be obtained, however, the effective inoculation time of ZrCuAlNi inoculant is short. Therefore, in this paper, we designed of a ZrCuAlNiLa inoculant to improve the effect inoculation time. The results showed that the effective inoculation time of ZrCuAlNiLa inoculant is prolonged obviously, which is due to La can facilitate the ZrCu compound-forming tendency and stabilize ZrCu compound phases that can act as the heterogeneous nucleation sites of α-Al phase. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties of those inoculated samples are discussed in this paper. Though this study, we provide a way to prolong the effective inoculation time of metallic glasses inoculant in Al Alloys.

Keywords

• Aluminum alloy
• Metallic glasses
• Inoculation