Vacancy assisted solute transport mechanisms responsible for the solute atom agglomeration during the early stages of aging in Al-Cu-based alloys

An approach using combined results, obtained by different experimental variants of positron annihilation spectroscopy and from kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, made it possible to determine the fundamental mechanisms by which vacancies assist solute atoms to form clusters during the earliest stages of precipitation kinetics in age-hardenable Al-Cu and Al-Cu-Mg alloys. The investigations were performed on the conventional precipitation-hardening system Al-1.74Cu (at. %) alloy aged at 293 and 342 K; these temperatures were chosen since they are low enough to avoid the formation of more stable nanostructures. To understand the influence of a minor alloying element on the solute clustering, the ternary Al-1.74Cu-0.35Mg (at. %) alloy was also studied. Interpreted in terms of the so-called vacancy pump model of solute aggregation, the results obtained made it possible to give a detailed and precise description concerning the role of the solute-vacancy exchanges in the solute clustering dynamics and the energetic stabilization of the formed clusters. It deserves to be pointed out that the results of our simulations for the ternary alloy indicate that, when aging proceeds, the solute atoms transported by vacancies progressively form Cu-Mg coclusters containing different amounts of nonmixed Cu or Mg solute atoms.