Synthesis of New Metastable Aluminum-Titanium Alloy by Defying Equilibrium in an Equilibrium Process

In this article, the synthesis of a newer generation of metastable aluminum- titanium (Al-Ti) materials is presented and discussed. Two equilibrium processing methods, using disintegrated melt deposition, were chosen and tried. The first restricted the interaction time between powders of titanium and molten aluminum, whereas the second essentially involved a change in surface characteristics of titanium powders prior to their addition to molten aluminum. The results of microstructural characterization and X-ray diffraction studies conducted on the Al-Ti materials, synthesized using the two methods, reveal the presence of elemental titanium and other phases in the aluminum matrix, thereby providing confirmation as to the metastable nature of these materials. Results also indicate that a significantly higher amount of titanium can be retained in the metal matrix at low processing temperatures when compared with predictions of the equilibrium Al-Ti phase diagram. Results of this study provide an innovative, viable, and cost-effective approach to synthesize metastable materials for both scientific and engineering applications