AccScience Publishing / MSAM / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/MSAM026280068
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Effect of silver microalloying on microstructure and crack inhibition of AA2195 aluminum-lithium alloy fabricated by laser powder bed fusion

Renke Wang1,2 ,  Kaijie Lin1,2 ,  Haodong Tian3 ,  Yang Chen1,2 ,  Jingrui Zhang1,2 ,  Dongdong Gu1,2*
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1 College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Yudao Street 29, Nanjing, Jiangsu , China
2 Jiangsu Provincial Engineering Research Center for Laser Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance Components, Yudao Street 29, Nanjing, Jiangsu , China
3 Shanghai Aerospace Equipment Manufacturer Limited Company, Shanghai , China
MSAM, 026280068 https://doi.org/10.36922/MSAM026280068
Received: 9 July 2026 | Revised: 19 August 2026 | Accepted: 24 August 2026 | Published online: 8 September 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) of aluminum alloys has been widely employed in aerospace, automotive, and other high-performance engineering applications. Nevertheless, aluminum-lithium (Al-Li) alloys processed via laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) are susceptible to solidification cracking and often exhibit suboptimal mechanical properties. In this study, the effects of silver (Ag) microalloying on the microstructure, crack formation, and tensile properties of LPBF-fabricated AA2195 alloy at room temperature were systematically investigated. An amount of 2.5 wt.% Ag was introduced into 2195 alloy powders via ball milling, and its influence on microstructure evolution and grain morphology was analyzed. The results indicate that Ag significantly reduces crack density while promoting the transformation from columnar to equiaxed grains. This may be attributed to the heterogeneous nucleation of Ag-Cu-Mg and Ag-Cu clusters. Meanwhile, Ag addition promotes the precipitation of θ' (Al2Cu) and T1 (Al2CuLi) phases, which contributes to enhanced precipitation strengthening. As a result, the Ag-modified alloy exhibits an ultimate tensile strength of 289 MPa at room temperature with elongation increased by approximately 60% compared to the unmodified alloy. The incorporation of Ag also improves the overall defect tolerance and fracture resistance of the alloy, attributed to combined effects of grain refinement, precipitation strengthening, and enhanced microstructural homogeneity. This work provides new insights into compositional design for producing crack-free, high-performance Al-Li alloys via LPBF and demonstrates the significant potential of Ag microalloying for enhancing their mechanical properties.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Additive manufacturing
Al-Li alloys
Microalloying
Microstructure
Mechanical properties
Funding
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2021YFB1715400), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52225503), and the Key Research and Development Program of Jiangsu Province (Grant Nos. BE2022069, BE2022069-1).
Conflict of interest
Dongdong Gu is an Editorial Board Member of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Materials Science in Additive Manufacturing, Electronic ISSN: 2810-9635 Published by AccScience Publishing
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