A new kind of aluminium-based alloy part amorphous/part crystalline, can be produced directlyby rapid quenching of the liquid. These materials have a novel structure of nanometer-sizedcrystals in an amorphous matrix and quite remarkable mechanical properties. The materialscan be considered to be nanophase composites. In this work Al88Ni10Y2 and Al88Ni8Y4 (atpct) nanophase composites consisting of a nanoscale dispersion of fcc-Al crystallites uniformlydispersed in an amorphous matrix, have been produced by melt-spinning. They have much highermicrohardness HV than fully amorphous alloys with the same composition. while retaining goodbending ductility The volume fraction, crystallite size and distribution of the fcc-Al phase havebeen estimated by DSC. X-ray diffraction and TEM. lt is found that the microstructure andproperties of the nanophase composites are very sensitive to the composition and the quenchingconditions. lncreasing the Y contedt and decreasing the Ni content at a given Al content givesmuch smaller dispersed nanophase aluminium crystallites. The volume fraction and crystallitesize of the fcc-Al phase increase with a decrease of wheel speed (quenching rate). The effectsof Y and Ni contents on the ease of formaticn of the nanophase composites are discussed. Theorigins of the novel mechanical properties are also considered.
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