“While experimenting with the heat-resistant aluminum alloy containing very small quantities of copper, magnesium and silver, we observed the formation of dispersed particles with a thickness of only a few nanometers which make the alloy much stronger despite their small size,” Anton Boev, one of the scientists at Skoltech involved in the project, said in a media statement. “In addition, the particles turned out to be coherent and fit well into the aluminum matrix, like pieces of a puzzle, although with slight distortions in their atomic structure.”
Boev pointed out that he and his colleagues also noticed that the particles’ structure and, therefore, the heat-treated alloy’s mechanical behaviour change according to a certain pattern.
The group believes that the combination of mechanical properties they have obtained should help extend the lifetime of aircraft structures made from these materials.
