1. Overview of alloy materials
Alloy is a mixture of two or more chemical substances (at least one of which is a metal) with metallic properties. It is generally obtained by fusing each component into a uniform liquid and then condensing it.
An alloy is at least one of the following three types: a single-phase solid solution of elements, a mixture of many metal phases, and an intermetallic compound of metals.The microstructure of alloys in solid solution has a single phase, and some alloys in solution have two or more phases. The distribution may be uniform or not, depending on the temperature change during the cooling process of the material.Intermetallic compounds typically consist of an alloy or pure metal surrounded by another pure metal.
Alloys are widely used.In some cases, metal combinations can reduce the overall cost of materials while retaining important properties.In other cases, combinations of metals impart synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements, such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength.Examples of alloys are steel, solder, brass, pewter, duralumin, bronze and amalgam.
In practical applications, alloy composition is usually measured by mass percentage, and in basic scientific research, it is usually measured by atomic fraction.Alloys are often classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, based on the arrangement of atoms that form them.
