Abstract
A hot dip aluminising process was carried out with a 1mm steel sheet dipped into the Al-10at.% Si melt in an automatic hot-dip simulator. When steel and liquid aluminium are in contact with each other, a thin intermetallic compound (IMC) is formed between the steel and the aluminium. The analysis and identification of the formation mechanism of the IMC is needed to manufacture the application products. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) are normally used to identify the phases of IMC. In the Al-Fe-Si system, numerous compounds with only slight differences in composition are formed. Consequently, EDX and EPMA are insufficient to confirm exactly the thin IMC with multiphases. In this study, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis combined with EDX was used. The TEM sample was prepared with focused ion beam (FIB) sampling. The FIB lift-out technology is used to slice a very thin specimen with minimum contamination for TEM analysis. It is clearly shown that the IMC consists of Al-27 at. % Fe-10 at. % Si and is identified as Al8Fe2Si with a hexagonal unit cell (space group P63/mmc). The cell parameters are a= 1.2404nm and c= 2.6234nm.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 159-163 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Advanced Materials Research |
| Volume | 15-17 |
| Publication status | Published - 2007 |
| Event | 5th International Conference on Processing and Manufacturing of Advanced Materials - THERMEC 2006 - Vancouver, BC, Canada Duration: 4 Jul 2006 → 8 Jul 2006 |
Keywords
- Al-coated steel
- Focused ion beam
- Hot dip aluminizing
- Intermetallic compound
- TEM
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)