Morphological characteristics of the rapidly and conventionally solidified alloys of the AlCuFe system

Different alloy compositions of AlCuFe in the composition range of Al (75-65), Cu (25-15) and Fe (15-7) at.% have been studied. Experimental results obtained in the Al70Cu20Fe10 and Al65Cu20Fe15 alloys prepared by conventional casting and Al74Cu18Fe8 and Al66Cu21Fe13 alloys produced by rapidly solidified techniques are presented. All these alloys were annealed at 600, 700, 850 and 950 degrees C and characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Several morphological aspects of the crystalline and the quasicrystalline phases as a function of the different solidification processes were observed. The experimental conditions where both crystalline and quasicrystalline phases coexist were analysed. The experimental results suggest the decomposition of ternary alloys such as: omega-Al7Cu2Fe, beta-Al-6(Cu,Fe) and psi-Al6Cu2Fe to binary compounds such as: theta-Al2Cu and Al13Fe4.