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Highly monodisperse core–shell particles created by solid-state reactions

Nature Materials volume 10, pages 710–715 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

The size distribution of particles, which is essential for many properties of nanomaterials, is equally important for the mechanical behaviour of the class of alloys whose strength derives from a dispersion of nanoscale precipitates. However, particle size distributions formed by solid-state precipitation are generally not well controlled. Here we demonstrate, through the example of core–shell precipitates in Al–Sc–Li alloys, an approach to forming highly monodisperse particle size distributions by simple solid-state reactions. The approach involves the use of a two-step heat treatment, whereby the core formed at high temperature provides a template for growth of the shell at lower temperature. If the core is allowed to grow to a sufficient size, the shell develops in a ‘size focusing’ regime, where smaller particles grow faster than larger ones. These results suggest strategies for manipulating precipitate size distributions in similar systems through simple variations in thermal treatments.

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Figure 1: Size distributions of precipitates in AlLiSc alloy measured with TEM.
Figure 2: Characterization of a single Al3(Li,Sc) core–shell precipitate in Al.
Figure 3: Thermodynamic and kinetic modelling of Al3(Li,Sc) precipitation.
Figure 4: Comparison of the evolution of precipitate sizes using the method described in this study with classical Ostwald ripening and an alternate route used in colloid synthesis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division of the US Department of Energy under Contracts # DE-AC02-05CH11231 (V.R., A.T., A.G., U.D.) and DE-FG02-06ER46282 (M.A.). Electron microscopy was performed at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, which is supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. C.O. acknowledges funding from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. V.R. acknowledges support of Nanotechnology and Functional Materials Center, funded by the European FP7 project No. 245916, and support from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia, under project No. 172054. M. Watanabe, R. Erni and Z. Lee are acknowledged for their assistance to M.D.R. in TEM/STEM/EELS data acquisition/reconstruction. We acknowledge Mr. J. Wu of LBNL, Materials Science Division, for alloy preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science Division, National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    V. Radmilovic, C. Ophus, M. D. Rossell, A. Tolley, A. Gautam, M. Asta & U. Dahmen

  2. Nanotechnology and Functional Materials Center, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

    V. Radmilovic

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2136, USA

    E. A. Marquis

  4. Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

    M. D. Rossell

  5. Comisión Nacional de Energı´a Atómica, San Carlos de Bariloche, R8402AGP Rı´o Negro, Argentina

    A. Tolley

  6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

    M. Asta

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  1. V. Radmilovic
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Contributions

V.R. conceived and designed the experiments and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. U.D., M.A. and C.O. co-wrote the manuscript. C.O. and M.A. performed first-principles simulation and continuum modelling. M.D.R. and V.R. carried out high-resolution microscopy and exit wave reconstruction. E.A.M. performed 3D-APT experiments and analysis. A.T., M.D.R. and A.G. carried out sample preparation and basic TEM characterization. V.R., U.D., M.A. and C.O. analysed the experimental results. All authors contributed to discussions.

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Correspondence to V. Radmilovic.

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Radmilovic, V., Ophus, C., Marquis, E. et al. Highly monodisperse core–shell particles created by solid-state reactions. Nature Mater 10, 710–715 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3077

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