Effect of Solute Ta on Grain Refinement of Al-7Si-0.3Mg Based Alloys

Abstract

Different Ta concentrations together with stochiometric grain refiner (Al-2.2Ti-1B) in Al-Si-Mg based alloys were investigated with the aim to elucidate grain refinement mechanisms. Post-solidification microstructure was characterised using optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), with a special focus on the Ta-rich layer (more likely to be Al3Ta) on the basal planes (0001) of TiB2. A significant grain refinement was observed by using the solute Ta together with stochiometric grain refiner (Al-2.2Ti-1B). In order to further elucidate the formation of Ta-rich layer on the basal planes (0001) of TiB2, the Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation were also performed to determine the interface energies of different interfaces and sandwich configurations, including Al (111), Al3Ti (112) and Al3Ta (112) at the interface of TiB2 basal plane (0001). It was found that the interface energy for Ti-terminated TiB2 at the interface throughout all configurations involved in this paper is lower than that for B-terminated TiB2, indicating that Ti-terminated TiB2 is more favourable. It was also found that the Al3Ta configuration yields the same interface energies as the Al3Ti configuration. Furthermore, the interface energy of the sandwich configuration also shows nearly identical values along the TiB2 // Al3Ti and TiB2 // Al3Ta interface energy, strongly indicating that the solute Ti can be fully replaced by the solute Ta.