Microstructure and mechanical properties of Zr–Co–Al alloys prepared by rapid solidification

Journal of Materials Research volume 32, pages2570–2577(2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Zr–Co–Al alloys possess prospects of wide applications in the field of nuclear reactor cladding materials and biomedical materials. (Zr0.5Co0.5)100−xAlx (x = 1, 2, 3 at.%) alloys were prepared by the water-cooling copper mold suction casting technique, and the microstructure and compression mechanical properties of the alloys were investigated. The results showed that the as-cast Zr–Co–Al alloys mainly consisted of the B2 ZrCo phase with columnar or equiaxed grains and a small quantity of intermetallic compounds, i.e., Co2Zr and Zr2Co. The yield strength of Zr–Co–Al alloys increased with increasing Al content, but the plasticity decreased at the same time. The as-cast Zr49.5Co49.5Al1 alloy attained the highest ultimate compression strength up to 2.57 ± 0.02 GPa and the largest compression strain up to ∼54.7%. The B2 to B33 martensitic transformation that occurred during the deformation process was investigated using high resolution transmission electron microscopy. It was concluded that the enhanced plasticity of Zr49.5Co49.5Al1 alloy can be attributed to the transformation induced plasticity associated with the deformation-induced martensitic transformation.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 51361017 and 51301078 for financial support.

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  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Caiju Li, Wenfei Lu, Jun Tan, Jingmei Tao, Jianhong Yi, Qixuan Zhang & Yang Xi

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  1. Caiju Li
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Correspondence to Caiju Li.

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Li, C., Lu, W., Tan, J. et al. Microstructure and mechanical properties of Zr–Co–Al alloys prepared by rapid solidification. Journal of Materials Research 32, 2570–2577 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.118

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