What is aluminium-cerium alloy

What is aluminium-cerium alloy

There is a material called aluminium-cerium alloy. Compared to the other more common series of pure aluminium and other alloys, aluminium cerium is apparently not as common. So what exactly is aluminium cerium alloy? Let's find out today!

Aluminium alloys containing cerium are being developed and used in high temperature automotive applications, such as cylinder heads and turbochargers, as well as other energy production applications. These alloys were initially developed to increase the use of cerium, which is overproduced in rare earth mining operations for more coveted elements such as neodymium and dysprosium, but are of interest for their strength at high temperatures for extended periods of time. Its strength comes from the presence of the Al11Ce3 intermetallic phase, which remains stable at 540 °C and retains its strength at temperatures up to 300 °C, making it very viable at high temperatures. Al-Ce alloys are typically cast because of their excellent casting properties, although there has also been work showing that laser-based additive manufacturing techniques can also be used to make parts with more complex geometries and higher mechanical properties. Recent work has focused on adding higher order alloying elements to binary Al-Ce systems to improve their mechanical properties at room and high temperatures, such as Fe, Ni, Mg or Cu, and work is underway to understand alloying element interactions even further.