Mechanical properties improvement of pre-deformed Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys by electroshocking treatment based on the non-equilibrium scattering of electron-dislocation

Plastic deformation is usually required from raw materials to metal products. Unfortunately, the lost ductility of high-strength aluminum alloys during deformation can hardly be compensated by traditional heat treatment without the serious reduction of strength. We have proposed a novel electroshocking treatment (EST) in absent of obvious temperature rise of the alloy. This method could greatly improve the ductility of the pre-deformation Al–Zn–Mg–Cu alloys without reducing its strength, although it only takes less than 2 s. By transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM, electronic backscattering diffraction and Geometric phase analysis, it was found that the dislocation distribution is more uniform and a large number of dislocation forests are generated after EST. In addition, the non-equilibrium temperature dislocation model has been proposed to interpret the physical nature of the electroplastic effect. The EST strategy is expected to be suitable for all metal materials and products.