Characterization in the icosahedral phase of the system Al63Cu25Fe12

The present work aimed to characterize the microstructure of the icosahedral phase (ɸ-quasicrystalline phase) of the system with stoichiometric composition of the quasicrystal Al63Cu25Fe12. The ternary alloy with nominal composition of Al63Cu25Fe12 was processed by Mechanical Alloying (MA) as a viable solid state processing method for producing various metastable and stable quasicrystalline phases. The structural characterization of the obtained samples was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), while the elemental composition of the chemical elements Al, Fe and Cu were determined by the technique of X-ray spectroscopy by dispersive energy (EDS). According to the results of XRD, the diffraction patterns of Al63Cu25Fe12 showed the presence of β-Al (Fe, Cu) and λ-Al13Fe4 phases coexist with the thermodynamic ɸ-phase quasicrystalline. Finally, elemental analysis indicates that during alloy synthesis there is little variation of the ideal composition. The results indicate that alloys with high percentage of icosahedral phase can be obtained by casting in the air.