Modification mechanism of eutectic silicon in Al–6Si–0.3Mg alloy with scandium

• Morphologies and growth of Sc and Sr-modified eutectic silicon resemble those of dendrites.
• Crystal orientation of eutectic aluminum depends on growth characteristics of eutectic silicon.
• We report strong evidence of the occurrence of an impurity-induced twinning mechanism.

The modification mechanism of eutectic silicon in Al–6Si–0.3Mg alloy with scandium was studied. The crystallographic orientation relationships between primary dendrites and the eutectic phase of unmodified and modified Al–6Si–0.3 Mg alloys were determined using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The orientation of aluminum modified with scandium in the eutectic phase was different from that of the neighboring primary dendrites. This result implies that eutectic aluminum grows epitaxially from the surrounding primary aluminum dendrites in the unmodified alloy and that eutectic aluminum grows competitively from the surrounding primary aluminum dendrites in the modified alloy. The pole figure maps of eutectic Si in the [1 0 0], [1 1 0] and [1 1 1] axes of the unmodified and Sc-modified alloys were different, suggesting that the eutectic Al and Si crystals in modified alloy growth are more isotropic and cover a larger set of directions. The lattice fringes of Si of the alloys with and without Sc modification were different in the TEM results. The lattice fringes of Si in modified alloy were found to be multiple twins. However, this was not observed in the unmodified alloy. The growth characteristic of eutectic Si crystal in modified alloy suggests the occurrence of multiple twinning reactions and the formation of a high density of twins. This modification mechanism by Sc is explained by the results of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis, which provide strong evidence of the occurrence of the impurity-induced twinning (IIT) mechanism.