A new beta titanium alloy system reinforced with superlattice intermetallic precipitates

Titanium alloys traditionally lack a nm-scale intermetallic precipitate that can be exploited for age-hardening from solid solution. Here such a strengthening concept is developed in the Ti-Fe-Mo system, with it being found that a high temperature β (bcc A2) single-phase field for homogenisation can be obtained, which following ageing (750 °C/80 h) precipitated B2 TiFe  <100 nm in size. The orientation relationship was found to be ⟨100⟩_A2//⟨100⟩_B2, {100}_A2//{100}_B2, with a misfit of −6.1%. The alloy was found to be very hard (HV_0.5 = 6.4 GPa) and strong (σ_{y, 0.2} = 1.9 GPa) with a density of 6.68 g cm⁻³. TEM observation and micropillar deformation showed that the precipitates resist dislocation cutting.