
Real-Time Atomic Scale Imaging of Nanostructural Evolution in Aluminum Alloys

Dr. Sairam K. Malladi
Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Authors | Sairam K. Malladi, Qiang Xu, Marijn A. van Huis, Frans D. Tichelaar, K. Joost Batenburg, Emrah Yücelen, Beata Dubiel, Aleksandra Czyrska-Filemonowicz, and Henny W. Zandbergen. Email | H.W.Zandbergen@tudelft.nl.
Application | Real-Time Atomic Scale Imaging of Nanostructural Evolution in Aluminum Alloys |
Authors | Sairam K. Malladi, Qiang Xu, Marijn A. van Huis, Frans D. Tichelaar, K. Joost Batenburg, Emrah Yücelen, Beata Dubiel, Aleksandra Czyrska-Filemonowicz, and Henny W. Zandbergen. |
Journal | Nano Lett., 2014, 14 (1), pp 384–389 |
Sample | FIB lamella, Metal |
Topic | Heat Treatment, Aging, Precipitation |
Field | Materials Science, Micro Electronics |
Techniques | HRTEM, EDX mapping |
Keywords | In situ (S)TEM; precipitation; aluminum alloys |
Publication | Full Publication Here – DOI 10.1021/nl404565j |
Real-Time Atomic Scale Imaging of Nanostructural Evolution in Aluminum Alloys
DENSsolutions Comments:
Most commercial engineering alloys undergo heat treatments to change their intrinsic microstructural properties, such as elemental distribution and precipitate density, to enhance their extrinsic physical properties such as mechanical strength. Despite the key importance of these treatments, studies of the compositional and structural evolution of alloys undergoing heat treatments are fragmented and time consuming as they have been carried out on a set of different samples taken at intermediate stages, which are postmortem data that do not show the evolution of the same area. Achieving in situ TEM observation of heat treatment process at atomic scale enable a full understanding of the relation among process, structure and properties.
The DENSsolutions heating system provides the minimal specimen drift at elevated temperature, allowing a novel in situ method to investigate the aging hardening process that the structural and compositional evolution of alloys can be directly analyzed with time and temperature down to atomic scale.