Precipitation behavior and grain refinement of burnishing Al-Zn-Mg alloy

Burnishing is a unique strengthening approach to improve the strength of surface layer and remains the ductility of the interior of metallic materials. In this work, burnishing treatment was employed to improve the surface microstructure of naturally aged Al-Zn-Mg alloys after solid solution. Transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and nano-indentation were used to characterize the effects of the burnishing on the microstructures of surface layer and Guinier-Preston (GP) zones. It was indicated that GP zones uniformly distributed and dispersed in the matrix before burnishing, and the amount of GP zones decreased dramatically after burnishing processing. Additionally, the grains in the surficial layer were refined into nano-crystals with an average grain size of 78 nm. Burnishing treatment not only led to formation of large number of dislocation substructures in the sub-surface and near-matrix surface, but also promoted the precipitation of metastable η’ phase at grain boundaries. The synergistic effects of the grain refinement, dislocation multiplication and the precipitation of η’ phase strengthen the burnished layer of Al-Zn-Mg alloy.