Tailoring precipitates for enhanced hydrogen trapping in aluminum alloys

Enhancing the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) resistance of alloys caters to the urgent needs of engineering safety and long-distance hydrogen transportation. Highly dense precipitates in the alloys act as H traps, however, some of them cannot strongly trap H thus failing to prevent its accumulation at the critical regions. Experimentally, it is challenging to expeditiously identify and generate phases causing strengthening and acting as strong H traps. Here, we demonstrate a computation-based design strategy to generate precipitates strongly trapping H. Based on the quantum machine learning Al-Sc-Cu potential, the optimal processing parameters of strong H trapping phases are determined, even though they are metastable in nature. Elemental mapping in electron microscope and atom probe tomography confirms the presence of Cu in Al₃Sc and its strong interaction with H. Hence, we envisage the proposed strategy will accelerate the design of HE-resistant microstructures of various technologically relevant materials via identification of desirable phases.