Preparation and microstructural characterization of the 60Al-40V master alloy

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering Vol. 655; no. 1; pp. 12028 - 12035
• Main Authors: Mapoli, T O, Annan, K A, Siyasiya, C W, Mutombo, Kalenda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Chemical composition; Chemical compounds; Exothermic reactions; Intermetallic compounds; Master alloys; Microscopy; Microstructural analysis; Optical microscopy; Vanadium pentoxide; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/655/1/012028

The present study focused on preparation and characterization of 60Al-40V master alloy which was produced via aluminothermic process. The study assessed the production in order to provide the optimum Al requirement for maximum recovery of the V. V2O5 (Vanadium pentoxide) and Al metal were mixed in the proportion of producing 60Al-40V and Al2O3 (slag) through an exothermic reaction. Microstructural analysis and phase identification were done using Optical Microscopy (OM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDX) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analyses. The XRD revealed diffraction peaks mainly of the Al3V phase and some peaks of slightly homogenized Al8V5 intermetallic compounds. The chemical composition was found to be 65 ± 0.03 and 35 ± 0.03 wt. % Al and V respectively. Good agreement between the experimental results and the predicted phases using Thermo-Calc. Software was observed.