Crystallography and refining mechanism of (Ti,B)-contained salts in pure aluminum

It is shown from experiment that the pure B contained salt exhibits little refining effect, while the pure Ti contained salt, especially the salt containing 5Ti/1B, shows obvious refining effect on the pure aluminum. Crystallographic study indicates that Al3Ti particle is a more suitable nucleation site for the aluminum matrix than (Ti, Al)B2 type particles (TiB2, AlB2 and (Ti,Al)B2), because there exist more coherent planes with aluminum matrix in the former. Thermodynamics estimation, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM detection show that the refining mechanism of (Ti, B)-contained refiners is mainly contributed to the heterogeneous nuclei of fine Al3Ti particles dispersed in the melting, which comes from the reaction between the Ti and aluminum. (Al, Ti)B2 type particle shows little or no direct refining effect, but it will reduce the size of Al3Ti since the Al3Ti nucleates and grows along the (Al, Ti)B2 type particle interface.