The structures and compositions of Ti and Zr rich phases in ternary Al-Ti-Zr and quaternary Al-Si-Ti-Zr systems were investigated by energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The additions of Ti and Zr were changed. It was found that Ti and Zr can replace each other in the Ti and Zr rich phases of Al-（Si-）Ti- Zr alloys. Compositions of the phases have been measured as a function of Ti and Zr additions. The content of Ti （Zr） in the phases increases with its addition in the alloys. Besides, the increase of Ti content can result in a decrease of lattice parameters. Microhardness of the phases in Al-18Si-xTi-yZr alloys changes with composition evolution. Moreover, the microhardness is higher than that of the intermetallics of ternary Al-Si-Ti and AI-Si-Zr alloys, due to the distortion of crystal structure caused by the replacement of Ti and Zr.
Al-LaB6 alloy was successfully prepared by aluminum melt reaction method. Microstmcture analysis of this alloy was carried out by field emission scanning electron microscopy （FESEM）, Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. It was found that cubic LaB6 particles were highly dispersed in aluminum matrix with a uniform edge length of about 4.5 μm. Grain refining potency of LaB6 on commercial pure aluminum was also investigated. It was shown that LaB6 could act as an effective and stable nucleation substrate for α-Al during solidification process, due to their crystallographic similarity. The coarse grains of commercial pure aluminum were obviously refined to small equiaxed ones by addition of 0.5% Al-5LaB6 alloy at 720 ℃.
A series of Al-Ti-B master alloys were prepared by different preparation routes,and the TiB2 particles in the master alloys were extracted and analyzed.It is found that the forming process has significant influence on the three-dimensional morphology of TiB2 particles.Different preparation routes result in different reaction forms,which accounts for the morphology variation of TiB2 particles.When the Al-Ti-B master alloy is prepared using ＂halide salt＂ route,TiB2 particles exhibit hexagonal platelet morphology and are independent with each other.In addition,the reaction temperature almost does not have influence on the morphology of TiB2 particles.However,TiB2 particles exhibit different morphologies at different reaction temperatures when the master alloys are prepared with Al-3B and Ti sponge.When the master alloy is prepared at 850 ℃,a kind of TiB2 particle agglomeration forms with a size larger than 5 μm.The TiB2 particles change to layered stacking morphology even dendritic morphology with the reaction temperature reaching up to 1200 ℃.
The grain reifnement limits of commercial pure Al inoculated by Al-5Ti-1B, Al-5Ti-0.25C and Al-5Ti-0.3C-0.2B master al oys were studied, and the inlfuence of melting temperature on the grain reifning performance of these three master al oys was investigated using a high scope video microscope （HSVM）, a ifeld-emission scanning electron microscope （FESEM）, an electron probe micro-analyzer （EPMA） and X-ray diffraction （XRD） method. Results show that there is a grain reifnement limit of commercial pure Al reifned by these three master al oys; with the same addition level of 1.5% under the present experimental conditions, the grain reifnement limits （smal est average grain size） of commercial pure Al reifned by Al-5Ti-1B, Al-5Ti-0.25C and Al-5Ti-0.3C-0.2B master al oys are 50 μm, 80 μm and 80 μm, respectively. In addition, with an increase in the melting temperature of the pure Al, the grain reifning performance of Al-5Ti-1B and Al-5Ti-0.25C master al oys decreases, but the grain reifning performance of Al-5Ti-0.3C-0.2B changes little.
