Nanotomographic evaluation of precipitate structure evolution in a Mg–Zn–Zr alloy during plastic deformation

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72964-x

Authors: Berit Zeller-Plumhoff (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) , Anna-Lena Robisch (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) , Daniele Pelliccia (Instruments & Data Tools Pty Ltd) , Elena Longo (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) , Hanna Slominska (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) , Alexander Hermann (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) , Martin Krenkel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) , Malte Storm (Diamond Light Source) , Yuri Estrin (Monash University; The University of Western Australia) , Regine Willumeit-Römer (Helmholtz Zentrum Geesthacht) , Tim Salditt (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) , Dmytro Orlov (Lund University)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Scientific Reports , VOL 10

State: Published (Approved)
Published: September 2020
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 21697

Abstract: Magnesium and its alloys attract increasingly wide attention in various fields, ranging from transport to medical solutions, due to their outstanding structural and degradation properties. These properties can be tailored through alloying and thermo-mechanical processing, which is often complex and multi-step, thus requiring in-depth analysis. In this work, we demonstrate the capability of synchrotron-based nanotomographic X-ray imaging methods, namely holotomography and transmission X-ray microscopy, for the quantitative 3D analysis of the evolution of intermetallic precipitate (particle) morphology and distribution in magnesium alloy Mg–5.78Zn–0.44Zr subjected to a complex multi-step processing. A rich history of variation of the intermetallic particle structure in the processed alloy provided a testbed for challenging the analytical capabilities of the imaging modalities studied. The main features of the evolving precipitate structure revealed earlier by traditional light and electron microscopy methods were confirmed by the 3D techniques of synchrotron-based X-ray imaging. We further demonstrated that synchrotron-based X-ray imaging enabled uncovering finer details of the variation of particle morphology and number density at various stages of processing—above and beyond the information provided by visible light and electron microscopy.

Diamond Keywords: Alloys

Subject Areas: Materials, Engineering, Technique Development


Instruments: I13-2-Diamond Manchester Imaging

Other Facilities: P10 at PETRA III

Added On: 05/10/2020 09:24

Documents:
s41598-020-72964-x.pdf

Discipline Tags:

Technique Development - Materials Science Materials Science Engineering & Technology Metallurgy

Technical Tags:

Imaging Tomography