Microstructural evolution of a nanocrystalline Ti-47Al-3Cr alloy during annealing in the α + γ-phase field

Prealloyed, gas-atomized (GA) Ti-47Al-3Cr alloy powder, containing about 70 pet of the α₂ (Ti₃Al) phase and 30 pet of the γ (TiAl) phase, was fully amorphized by mechanical alloying. The amorphous phase was stable during heating to 600 °C, but decomposed at higher temperatures, with an exothermic reaction peak at 624 °C as the material transformed to a mixture of α₂ and γ and then to a fully γ structure at 722 °C. A nanocrystalline compact with a mean grain size of 42 nm was obtained by hot isostatic pressing (HIP'ing) of the amorphous powder at 725 °C. Isothermal annealing experiments were conducted in the two-phase α + γ field, at 1200 °C, using holding times of 5, 10, 25, and 35 hours, followed by air cooling. The X-ray diffractometry and analytical transmission electron microscopy investigations carried out on annealed and air-cooled specimens revealed only the presence of the γ grains, which coarsened on annealing. Initially, the grains grew, followed by a saturation stage after annealing for 25 hours, with a saturation grain size of about 1 μm. This grain growth and saturation behavior can be described with a normal grain growth mechanism in which a permanent pinning force is taken into account. Twins formed in the γ grains as a result of annealing and air cooling and exhibited a common twinning plane of (111) with the matrix phase. The minimum γ grain size in which twinning occurred in the annealed specimens was determined to be 0.25 μm, which suggests that twinning is energetically unfavorable in the nanometer-sized grains.