Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
This paper briefly traces the study of the preprecipitation or cold-aging stage of the decomposition of supersaturated solutions by means of diffuse scattering of X-rays.
This part of the overall precipitation process is of considerable practical as well as theoretical interest because it is during preprecipitation that changes in many physical and mechanical properties take place without the formation of a precipitate phase.
Examples will be given to show the types of zones encountered during this stage in various age-hardening alloys. These will attempt to illustrate the contribution which the study of diffuse scattering of X-rays, guided by present-day concepts of crystal imperfections, has made toward a better understanding of the precipitation process in alloys.