Difference in age-hardening mechanism in dental gold alloys.

TEM and SAED studies were conducted to clarify a difference in age-hardening mechanism with changes of gold content in Au-Cu-Ag ternary alloys, 18K, 16K, and 14K gold alloys, for which the ratio of copper to silver remained at 65 to 35 in weight. Age-hardening in the 18K alloy was attributed to the formation of the AuCu I type ordered platelets on the matrix (100). In the 16K and 14K alloys, a periodic antiphase domain structure of the AuCu II type ordered phase made a major contribution to age-hardening. An alternating coarse lamellar structure was formed by the mechanism of discontinuous precipitation in the 16K alloy, while a modulated structure by spinodal decomposition was observed in the 14K alloy.