An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal.

Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the
properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical
conductivity, ductility, opacity, and luster, but may have properties that differ
from those of the pure metals, such as increased strength or hardness. In
some cases, an alloy may reduce the overall cost of the material while
preserving important properties. In other cases, the mixture imparts
synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion
resistance or mechanical strength.

In an alloy, the atoms are joined by metallic bonding rather than by covalent
bonds typically found in chemical compounds.[1] The alloy constituents are
usually measured by mass percentage for practical applications, and
in atomic fraction for basic science studies. Alloys are usually classified as
substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the atomic arrangement that
forms the alloy. They can be further classified as homogeneous (consisting of
a single phase), or heterogeneous (consisting of two or more phases)
or intermetallic. An alloy may be a solid solution of metal elements (a single
phase, where all metallic grains (crystals) are of the same composition) or
a mixture of metallic phases (two or more solutions, forming
a microstructure of different crystals within the metal).

Examples of alloys include red gold (gold and copper), white gold (gold
and silver), sterling silver (silver and copper), steel or silicon steel (iron with
non-metallic carbon or silicon respectively), solder, brass, pewter, duralumin,
bronze, and amalgams.

Alloys are used in a wide variety of applications, from the steel alloys, used in
everything from buildings to automobiles to surgical tools, to
exotic titanium alloys used in the aerospace industry, to beryllium-copper
alloys for non-sparking tools.

Characteristics

Liquid bronze, being poured into molds

during casting
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements, which forms an impure substance
(admixture) that retains the characteristics of a metal. An alloy is distinct from
an impure metal in that, with an alloy, the added elements are well controlled
to produce desirable properties, while impure metals such as wrought iron are
less controlled, but are often considered useful. Alloys are made by mixing
two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal. This is usually called
the primary metal or the base metal, and the name of this metal may also be
the name of the alloy. The other constituents may or may not be metals but,
when mixed with the molten base, they will be soluble and dissolve into the
mixture. The mechanical properties of alloys will often be quite different from
those of its individual constituents. A metal that is normally very soft
(malleable), such as aluminium, can be altered by alloying it with another soft
metal, such as copper. Although both metals are very soft and ductile, the
resulting aluminium alloy will have much greater strength. Adding a small
amount of non-metallic carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater
strength of an alloy called steel. Due to its very-high strength, but still
substantial toughness, and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment,
steel is one of the most useful and common alloys in modern use. By
adding chromium to steel, its resistance to corrosion can be enhanced,
creating stainless steel, while adding silicon will alter its electrical
characteristics, producing silicon steel.

A brass lamp
Like oil and water, a molten metal may not always mix with another element.
For example, pure iron is almost completely insoluble with copper. Even when
the constituents are soluble, each will usually have a saturation point, beyond
which no more of the constituent can be added. Iron, for example, can hold a
maximum of 6.67% carbon. Although the elements of an alloy usually must be
soluble in the liquid state, they may not always be soluble in the solid state. If
the metals remain soluble when solid, the alloy forms a solid solution,
becoming a homogeneous structure consisting of identical crystals, called
a phase. If as the mixture cools the constituents become insoluble, they may
separate to form two or more different types of crystals, creating a
heterogeneous microstructure of different phases, some with more of one
constituent than the other. However, in other alloys, the insoluble elements
may not separate until after crystallization occurs. If cooled very quickly, they
first crystallize as a homogeneous phase, but they are supersaturated with the
secondary constituents. As time passes, the atoms of these supersaturated
alloys can separate from the crystal lattice, becoming more stable, and
forming a second phase that serves to reinforce the crystals internally.

A gate valve, made from Inconel

Some alloys, such as electrum—an alloy of silver and gold—occur naturally.
Meteorites are sometimes made of naturally occurring alloys of iron
and nickel, but are not native to the Earth. One of the first alloys made by
humans was bronze, which is a mixture of the metals tin and copper. Bronze
was an extremely useful alloy to the ancients, because it is much stronger and
harder than either of its components. Steel was another common alloy.
However, in ancient times, it could only be created as an accidental byproduct
from the heating of iron ore in fires (smelting) during the manufacture of iron.
Other ancient alloys include pewter, brass and pig iron. In the modern age,
steel can be created in many forms. Carbon steel can be made by varying
only the carbon content, producing soft alloys like mild steel or hard alloys
like spring steel. Alloy steels can be made by adding other elements, such
as chromium, molybdenum, vanadium or nickel, resulting in alloys such
as high-speed steel or tool steel. Small amounts of manganese are usually
alloyed with most modern steels because of its ability to remove unwanted
impurities, like phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen, which can have detrimental
effects on the alloy. However, most alloys were not created until the 1900s,
such as various aluminium, titanium, nickel, and magnesium alloys. Some
modern superalloys, such as incoloy, inconel, and hastelloy, may consist of a
multitude of different elements.

An alloy is technically an impure metal, but when referring to alloys, the

term impurities usually denotes undesirable elements. Such impurities are
introduced from the base metals and alloying elements, but are removed
during processing. For instance, sulfur is a common impurity in steel. Sulfur
combines readily with iron to form iron sulfide, which is very brittle, creating
weak spots in the steel.[2] Lithium, sodium and calcium are common impurities
in aluminium alloys, which can have adverse effects on the structural
integrity of castings. Conversely, otherwise pure-metals that contain unwanted
impurities are often called "impure metals" and are not usually referred to as
alloys. Oxygen, present in the air, readily combines with most metals to
form metal oxides; especially at higher temperatures encountered during
alloying. Great care is often taken during the alloying process to remove
excess impurities, using fluxes, chemical additives, or other methods
of extractive metallurgy.[3]

Theory
Alloying a metal is done by combining it with one or more other elements. The
most common and oldest alloying process is performed by heating the base
metal beyond its melting point and then dissolving the solutes into the molten
liquid, which may be possible even if the melting point of the solute is far
greater than that of the base. For example, in its liquid state, titanium is a very
strong solvent capable of dissolving most metals and elements. In addition, it
readily absorbs gases like oxygen and burns in the presence of nitrogen. This
increases the chance of contamination from any contacting surface, and so
must be melted in vacuum induction-heating and special, water-cooled,
copper crucibles.[4] However, some metals and solutes, such as iron and
carbon, have very high melting-points and were impossible for ancient people
to melt. Thus, alloying (in particular, interstitial alloying) may also be
performed with one or more constituents in a gaseous state, such as found in
a blast furnace to make pig iron (liquid-gas), nitriding, carbonitriding or other
forms of case hardening (solid-gas), or the cementation process used to
make blister steel (solid-gas). It may also be done with one, more, or all of the
constituents in the solid state, such as found in ancient methods of pattern
welding (solid-solid), shear steel (solid-solid), or crucible steel production
(solid-liquid), mixing the elements via solid-state diffusion.

By adding another element to a metal, differences in the size of the atoms

create internal stresses in the lattice of the metallic crystals; stresses that
often enhance its properties. For example, the combination of carbon with iron
produces steel, which is stronger than iron, its primary element.
The electrical and thermal conductivity of alloys is usually lower than that of
the pure metals. The physical properties, such as density, reactivity, Young's
modulus of an alloy may not differ greatly from those of its base element, but
engineering properties such as tensile strength,[5] ductility, and shear
strength may be substantially different from those of the constituent materials.
This is sometimes a result of the sizes of the atoms in the alloy, because
larger atoms exert a compressive force on neighboring atoms, and smaller
atoms exert a tensile force on their neighbors, helping the alloy resist
deformation. Sometimes alloys may exhibit marked differences in behavior
even when small amounts of one element are present. For example,
impurities in semiconducting ferromagnetic alloys lead to different properties,
as first predicted by White, Hogan, Suhl, Tian Abrie and Nakamura.[6][7]

Unlike pure metals, most alloys do not have a single melting point, but a
melting range during which the material is a mixture of solid and liquid phases
(a slush). The temperature at which melting begins is called the solidus, and
the temperature when melting is just complete is called the liquidus. For many
alloys there is a particular alloy proportion (in some cases more than one),
called either a eutectic mixture or a peritectic composition, which gives the
alloy a unique and low melting point, and no liquid/solid slush transition.

Heat treatment
 Allotropes of iron, (alpha
iron and gamma iron) showing the differences in atomic arrangement

Photomicrographs of steel. Top

photo: Annealed (slowly cooled) steel forms a heterogeneous,
lamellar microstructure called pearlite, consisting of the
phases cementite (light) and ferrite (dark). Bottom
photo: Quenched (quickly cooled) steel forms a single phase
called martensite, in which the carbon remains trapped within the
crystals, creating internal stresses
Alloying elements are added to a base metal, to induce hardness, toughness,
ductility, or other desired properties. Most metals and alloys can be work
hardened by creating defects in their crystal structure. These defects are
created during plastic deformation by hammering, bending, extruding, et
cetera, and are permanent unless the metal is recrystallized. Otherwise, some
alloys can also have their properties altered by heat treatment. Nearly all
metals can be softened by annealing, which recrystallizes the alloy and
repairs the defects, but not as many can be hardened by controlled heating
and cooling. Many alloys of aluminium, copper, magnesium, titanium, and
nickel can be strengthened to some degree by some method of heat
treatment, but few respond to this to the same degree as does steel.[8]

The base metal iron of the iron-carbon alloy known as steel, undergoes a
change in the arrangement (allotropy) of the atoms of its crystal matrix at a
certain temperature (usually between 820 °C (1,500 °F) and 870 °C
(1,600 °F), depending on carbon content). This allows the smaller carbon
atoms to enter the interstices of the iron crystal. When this diffusion happens,
the carbon atoms are said to be in solution in the iron, forming a particular
single, homogeneous, crystalline phase called austenite. If the steel is cooled
slowly, the carbon can diffuse out of the iron and it will gradually revert to its
low temperature allotrope. During slow cooling, the carbon atoms will no
longer be as soluble with the iron, and will be forced to precipitate out of
solution, nucleating into a more concentrated form of iron carbide (Fe3C) in
the spaces between the pure iron crystals. The steel then becomes
heterogeneous, as it is formed of two phases, the iron-carbon phase
called cementite (or carbide), and pure iron ferrite. Such a heat treatment
produces a steel that is rather soft. If the steel is cooled quickly, however, the
carbon atoms will not have time to diffuse and precipitate out as carbide, but
will be trapped within the iron crystals. When rapidly cooled, a diffusionless
(martensite) transformation occurs, in which the carbon atoms become
trapped in solution. This causes the iron crystals to deform as the crystal
structure tries to change to its low temperature state, leaving those crystals
very hard but much less ductile (more brittle).

While the high strength of steel results when diffusion and precipitation is
prevented (forming martensite), most heat-treatable alloys are precipitation
hardening alloys, that depend on the diffusion of alloying elements to achieve
their strength. When heated to form a solution and then cooled quickly, these
alloys become much softer than normal, during the diffusionless
transformation, but then harden as they age. The solutes in these alloys will
precipitate over time, forming intermetallic phases, which are difficult to
discern from the base metal. Unlike steel, in which the solid solution
separates into different crystal phases (carbide and ferrite), precipitation
hardening alloys form different phases within the same crystal. These
intermetallic alloys appear homogeneous in crystal structure, but tend to
behave heterogeneously, becoming hard and somewhat brittle.[8]

In 1906, precipitation hardening alloys were discovered by Alfred Wilm.

Precipitation hardening alloys, such as certain alloys of aluminium, titanium,
and copper, are heat-treatable alloys that soften when quenched (cooled
quickly), and then harden over time. Wilm had been searching for a way to
harden aluminium alloys for use in machine-gun cartridge cases. Knowing
that aluminium-copper alloys were heat-treatable to some degree, Wilm tried
quenching a ternary alloy of aluminium, copper, and the addition of
magnesium, but was initially disappointed with the results. However, when
Wilm retested it the next day he discovered that the alloy increased in
hardness when left to age at room temperature, and far exceeded his
expectations. Although an explanation for the phenomenon was not provided
until 1919, duralumin was one of the first "age hardening" alloys used,
becoming the primary building material for the first Zeppelins, and was soon
followed by many others.[9] Because they often exhibit a combination of high
strength and low weight, these alloys became widely used in many forms of
industry, including the construction of modern aircraft.[10]

Mechanisms
 Different atomic mechanisms of alloy
formation, showing pure metal, substitutional, interstitial, and a
combination of the two
When a molten metal is mixed with another substance, there are two
mechanisms that can cause an alloy to form, called atom exchange and
the interstitial mechanism. The relative size of each element in the mix plays a
primary role in determining which mechanism will occur. When the atoms are
relatively similar in size, the atom exchange method usually happens, where
some of the atoms composing the metallic crystals are substituted with atoms
of the other constituent. This is called a substitutional alloy. Examples of
substitutional alloys include bronze and brass, in which some of the copper
atoms are substituted with either tin or zinc atoms respectively.

In the case of the interstitial mechanism, one atom is usually much smaller
than the other and can not successfully substitute for the other type of atom in
the crystals of the base metal. Instead, the smaller atoms become trapped in
the interstitial sites between the atoms of the crystal matrix. This is referred to
as an interstitial alloy. Steel is an example of an interstitial alloy, because the
very small carbon atoms fit into interstices of the iron matrix.

Stainless steel is an example of a combination of interstitial and substitutional

alloys, because the carbon atoms fit into the interstices, but some of the iron
atoms are substituted by nickel and chromium atoms.[8]

History and examples

A meteorite and a hatchet that was

forged from meteoric iron. Evidence of the Widmanstätten
patterns from the original meteorite used to make the hatchet's head
can be seen on its surface.
Meteoric iron
The use of alloys by humans started with the use of meteoric iron, a naturally
occurring alloy of nickel and iron. It is the main constituent of iron meteorites.
As no metallurgic processes were used to separate iron from nickel, the alloy
was used as it was.[11] Meteoric iron could be forged from a red heat to make
objects such as tools, weapons, and nails. In many cultures it was shaped by
cold hammering into knives and arrowheads. They were often used as anvils.
Meteoric iron was very rare and valuable, and difficult for ancient people
to work.[12]

Bronze and brass

Bronze axe 1100 BC

A bronze doorknocker
Iron is usually found as iron ore on Earth, except for one deposit of native
iron in Greenland, which was used by the Inuit.[13] Native copper, however,
was found worldwide, along with silver, gold, and platinum, which were also
used to make tools, jewelry, and other objects since Neolithic times. Copper
was the hardest of these metals, and the most widely distributed. It became
one of the most important metals to the ancients. Around 10,000 years ago in
the highlands of Anatolia (Turkey), humans learned to smelt metals such as
copper and tin from ore. Around 2500 BC, people began alloying the two
metals to form bronze, which was much harder than its ingredients. Tin was
rare, however, being found mostly in Great Britain. In the Middle East, people
began alloying copper with zinc to form brass.[14] Ancient civilizations took
into account the mixture and the various properties it produced, such
as hardness, toughness and melting point, under various conditions
of temperature and work hardening, developing much of the information
contained in modern alloy phase diagrams.[15] For example, arrowheads from
the Chinese Qin dynasty (around 200 BC) were often constructed with a hard
bronze-head, but a softer bronze-tang, combining the alloys to prevent both
dulling and breaking during use.[16]

Amalgams
Mercury has been smelted from cinnabar for thousands of years. Mercury
dissolves many metals, such as gold, silver, and tin, to form amalgams (an
alloy in a soft paste or liquid form at ambient temperature). Amalgams have
been used since 200 BC in China for gilding objects such
as armor and mirrors with precious metals. The ancient Romans often used
mercury-tin amalgams for gilding their armor. The amalgam was applied as a
paste and then heated until the mercury vaporized, leaving the gold, silver, or
tin behind.[17] Mercury was often used in mining, to extract precious metals
like gold and silver from their ores.[18]

Precious metals

Electrum, a natural alloy of silver and

gold, was often used for making coins
Many ancient civilizations alloyed metals for purely aesthetic purposes. In
ancient Egypt and Mycenae, gold was often alloyed with copper to produce
red-gold, or iron to produce a bright burgundy-gold. Gold was often found
alloyed with silver or other metals to produce various types of colored gold.
These metals were also used to strengthen each other, for more practical
purposes. Copper was often added to silver to make sterling silver, increasing
its strength for use in dishes, silverware, and other practical items. Quite
often, precious metals were alloyed with less valuable substances as a means
to deceive buyers.[19] Around 250 BC, Archimedes was commissioned by the
King of Syracuse to find a way to check the purity of the gold in a crown,
leading to the famous bath-house shouting of "Eureka!" upon the discovery
of Archimedes' principle.[20]

Pewter
The term pewter covers a variety of alloys consisting primarily of tin. As a pure
metal, tin is much too soft to use for most practical purposes. However, during
the Bronze Age, tin was a rare metal in many parts of Europe and the
Mediterranean, so it was often valued higher than gold. To make jewellery,
cutlery, or other objects from tin, workers usually alloyed it with other metals
to increase strength and hardness. These metals were
typically lead, antimony, bismuth or copper. These solutes were sometimes
added individually in varying amounts, or added together, making a wide
variety of objects, ranging from practical items such as dishes, surgical tools,
candlesticks or funnels, to decorative items like ear rings and hair clips.

The earliest examples of pewter come from ancient Egypt, around 1450 BC.
The use of pewter was widespread across Europe, from France to Norway
and Britain (where most of the ancient tin was mined) to the Near East.
[21] The alloy was also used in China and the Far East, arriving in Japan
around 800 AD, where it was used for making objects like ceremonial vessels,
tea canisters, or chalices used in shinto shrines.[22]