Synergistic Effect of Mo and V Addition on Al–Si Alloys Containing High Iron Impurity

The current study aims to take a step forward in understanding the morphological changes of Fe-rich intermetallics using Fe correctors. Specifically, minor additions of molybdenum (Mo) and vanadium (V) were employed to investigate the morphological changes in hard β-phases (β-Al₅FeSi) into granular α-phases in Al–Si–2.5Fe scrap alloy. The microstructure and composition of the intermetallic phases were characterized using SEM-EDS, Xrd, and optical microscopy. The combined effect of vanadium and molybdenum showed significant improvement in intermetallic formation while suppressing the platelet β-Al₅FeSi morphologies. Interestingly, a new quinary AlSiFeMoV phase was discovered through SEM-EDS and XRD. Thermal analysis was performed to investigate the influence of Fe-rich intermetallics in the presence of alloying additions V and Mo. Moreover, the microstructure revealed various α-phase morphologies, including quadrilateral, polygonal, and Chinese script structures, which were subjected to detailed intermetallic analysis in this study. A hardness test was performed to understand the effect of Mo and V additions on the Al–Si–2.5Fe scrap alloy. A synergistic effect was observed at 1 wt.% of Mo and V additions in the scrap alloy revealed that significant drop up to 17.19% hardness was observed in the synergistic-affected alloy.