X-Ray Diffraction Analysis on Crystallite Development of Nanostructured Aluminium

This study is to investigate the crystallite development in nanostructured aluminium using x-ray line broadening analysis. Nanostructured aluminium was produced by equal channel angular extrusion at room temperature to a total deformation strain of ~17. Samples of the extruded metal were then heat treated at temperatures up to 300oC. High order diffraction peaks were obtained using Mo radiation and the integral breadth was determined. It was found that as the annealing temperature increased, the integral breadth of the peak reflections decreased. By establishing the modified Williamson-Hall plots (integral breadth vs contract factor) after instrumental correction, it was determined that the crystallite size of the metal was maintained ~80 nm at 100oC. As the annealing temperature increased to 200oC, the crystallite size increased to ~118 nm. With increasing annealing temperature, the hardness of the metal decreased from ~60 HV to ~45 HV.