三维原子探针技术助力先进铝合金研究

Understanding Advanced Aluminum Alloys with Atom Probe Tomography

随着各国对节能环保的日益重视,产业界对高性能轻质可再生铝合金的需求不断增加。准确掌握铝合金的微观组织结构及它们对性能的影响,对设计高性能铝合金至关重要。三维原子探针作为一种具有近原子级空间分辨率的表征技术,能够在近原子尺度上对铝合金内部微观结构如固溶体、短程有序、团簇、纳米析出相、位/层错和界面等的元素分布和化学成分进行精准表征,从而为优化铝合金传统制备工艺和开发新工艺、新结构铝合金提供重要的实验依据。在介绍三维原子探针技术基本原理及数据处理方法的基础上,分别从铝合金关键微观组织调控及新工艺、新结构开发等几个方面,回顾了三维原子探针技术在先进铝合金表征中的典型应用,探讨了三维原子探针技术在铝合金应用中的局限性及其未来发展方向。

With the increasing demand for environment protection and energy saving,recyclable light-weight Al alloys with high performance become highly demanded for many important applications.Deep understanding of the microstructures of Al alloys and their effects on properties is important for guiding the design and development of high-performance Al alloys.Atom probe tomography(APT),as an advanced characterization technique with near atomic-level spatial resolution,has been used to gain new insight into complex distribution of alloying element atoms in the microstructures of Al alloys.Solid solutions,short-range order,clusters,nano-precipitates,dislocations,stacking faults and interfaces in the near-atomic scale have been studied quantitatively.Such investigations provide an important knowledge base for optimizing processing parameters of Al alloys,designing and developing new advanced Al alloys.In this paper,we firstly introduce the basic principles and data processing of APT,then review the typical application of APT in the development of Al alloys with high performance,and finally discuss the limitations of APT in the application in Al alloys and its future development.