Revealing complex precipitation behavior of multicomponent Al83Zn5Cu5Mg5Li2 alloy

We investigated the microstructural evolution and precipitation behavior of a multicomponent Al83Zn5Cu5Mg5Li2 alloy using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom-probe tomography (APT) during solution treatment, cooling, and natural aging. The as-cast alloy consisted of high volume fractions of V-Al5Cu6Mg2 and η-Mg(Zn,Cu,Al) phases, which were partially dissolved during solution treatment at 450 °C. Slow furnace cooling (FC) after solution treatment resulted in the formation of polygonal V-phase, elongated η-phase, and platelet Y-phase precipitates. The Y-phase precipitates consisted of one Mg-rich central layer and three adjacent Zn/Cu-rich layers, both lying on the {111}Al planes. Instead of Y-phase precipitates, air cooling (AC) induced the formation of S- and Zn-phase precipitates with well-developed orientation relationships. No precipitation occurred during water quenching (WQ). The microhardness increased significantly during the natural aging of the AC and WQ alloys, whereas no hardening was observed in the FC alloy. TEM and APT analyses demonstrated that the natural aging induced the formation of fine solute clusters with a chemical composition of 52.3Al–21.3Li–18.3Zn–4.9Mg–3.1Cu (at%), contributing to the natural age-hardening of AC and FC alloys. The solute clusters were fully coherent with the Al matrix and exhibited an interfacial region rich in Zn and two central regions rich in Li and Zn.