The preferential orientation and lattice misfit of the directionally solidified Fe–Al–Ta eutectic composite

Fe–Al intermetallic compound has been paid more attentions recently in many fields such as aeronautic, aerospace, automobile, energy and chemical engineering, and so on. In this paper Fe–Al–Ta eutectic was prepared by a modified Bridgman directional solidification technique, and it is found that microstructure of the Fe–Al–Ta eutectic alloy transforms from the broken-lamellar eutectic to cellular eutectic with the increase of the solidification rate. In the cellular eutectic structure, the fibers are parallel to each other within the same grain, but some fibers are deviated from the original orientation at the grain boundaries. To study the crystallographic orientation relationship (OR) between the two phases, the preferential orientation of the Fe–Al–Ta eutectic alloy at the different solidification rates was studied by Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED). Moreover, the lattice misfit between Fe2Ta(Al) Laves phase and Fe(Al,Ta) matrix phase was calculated.