The effect of Cu addition and milling contaminations on the microstructure evolution of ball milled Al–Pb alloy during sintering

Al–10 wt.%Pb and Al–10 wt.%Pb–x wt.%Cu (x = 0–7.0) bulk alloys were prepared by sintering the mechanically alloyed powders at various temperatures. The microstructure changes of the as consolidated powders in the course of sintering were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy. It has been found that, with respect to the Al–10 wt.%Pb–x wt.%Cu alloy, CuAl2 and Cu9Al4 phases formed in the milling process, and the amount of CuAl2 phase increased while the Cu9Al4 phase disappeared gradually in the sintering process. In both Al–10 wt.%Pb and Al–10 wt.%Pb–x wt.%Cu alloys, the sintering process results in the coarsening of Pb phase and the growth rate of Pb phase fulfills the Lifshitz–Slyozov–Wagner equation even though the size of the Pb phase was in nanometer range. The Pb particle exhibits cuboctahedral morphology and has a cubic to cubic orientation relationship with the Al matrix. The addition of Cu strongly depressed the growth rate of Pb. Contamination induced by milling has apparent influence on the microstructure of the sintered alloys. Al7Cu2Fe and aluminium oxide phases were identified in the sintered alloys. The cuboctahedral morphology of Pb particles was broken up by the presence of the oxide phase.