Effect of Ag on age-hardening response of Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys

Abstract The addition of Ag significantly increases the early ageing response, overall ageing response and peak age-hardening of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy. Ag is the most segregated of the solutes during ageing and a positive correlation between Ag and Cu exists in clusters and larger aggregates throughout the precipitation sequence (1–120 min).