https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05665-3
Regular Article
Investigation of microstructure and thermal behavior of CuAlTaGd alloy samples quenched in liquid nitrogen environment after increasing thermal aging times
1
Vocational School of Tatvan, Bitlis Eren University, 13000, Bitlis, Turkey
2
Vocational School of Social Sciences, Bitlis Eren University, 13000, Bitlis, Turkey
Received:
1
March
2024
Accepted:
17
September
2024
Published online:
26
September
2024
This study presents the effects of aging alloy samples at 900 °C for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 h and then quenching in liquid nitrogen on structural/microstructural and phase transformations through XRD, SEM/EDX mapping and DSC analyses. The microstructure of the alloy presents Ta2(Al,Cu)3, Al4Cu5Gd and Al3GdCu2 intermetallic compounds with 
, 
martensite structures, 
precipitates and voids. With increasing aging, 
precipitates and void structures re-nucleated and grew, while quenching with liquid nitrogen preserved these structures at room temperature. Therefore, it was determined in the SEM micrograph that the martensite phase structures were suppressed and the fine needle-type (18R) martensite structure could be observed only in the 10-h sample. The existence of 
, 
→(α + ) and precipitate phase transformations was found to be reversible by DSC analysis. The crystallite sizes decreased until 10-h sample and then increased again, which was due to the recrystallization, plastic deformation and dislocations that changed with the increase of aging time.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
