Scanning Precession Electron Diffraction Study of Hybrid Precipitates in a 6xxx Series Aluminium Alloy

Abstract

Obtaining reliable and statistical assessment of nanoscale precipitates to link the microstructure with material properties is a primary objective of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies of agehardenable aluminium (Al) alloys. Here, it is demonstrated that nanometer-resolution scanning precession electron diffraction (SPED) [1] combined with versatile post-facto computational analysis provides a route to extract improved precipitate statistics in Al alloys. The approach developed is automated, and offers more objective assessment compared to conventional imaging procedures which require manual identification, counting and measurements. The material studied here is a common 6xxx series industrial alloy (6082, Al-0.72Mg-0.88Si-0.03Cu (wt %)) and the methods developed are generic and applicable to any material containing nanoscale precipitates.