The effect of microalloying additions of Au on the natural ageing of Al–Cu Original Research Article

The influence of microalloying additions of Au to the binary Al–Cu system is investigated utilizing hardness measurements, positron annihilation spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. No room temperature ageing could be observed in the case of the ternary Al–Cu–Au alloy. Instead, quenched-in vacancies were trapped by Au atoms and thus could not catalyse the decomposition of the alloy. However, artificial ageing dissolves the complexes of Au and vacancies. A comparison between experimental and calculated absorption spectra shows that Au atoms did not agglomerate significantly during either natural or artificial ageing.