TY - JOUR

T1 - A high-strength silicide phase in a stainless steel alloy designed for wear-resistant applications

AU - Bowden, D.

AU - Krysiak, Yaşar

AU - Palatinus, L.

AU - Tsivoulas, D.

AU - Plana-Ruiz, S.

AU - Sarakinou, E.

AU - Kolb, U.

AU - Stewart, D.

AU - Preuss, M.

N1 - Funding information: We thank Rolls-Royce plc. and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for financial support provided through the Advanced Metallic Systems Centre for Doctoral Training. M.P. also acknowledges his EPSRC Leadership Fellowship support (EP/I005420/1) and NNUMAN (EP/J021172/1). D.B. and M.P. also acknowledge additional EPSRC funding (EP/R000956/1). We are also grateful to the Stipendienstiftung Rheinland-Pfalz for financial support. Many thanks to Professor D. Dye and Dr. M Rahman from Imperial College London for allowing us access to their casting facilities to produce the carbon-deficient silicide ingot. Thanks to the ID22 staff at the ESRF: Dr. A. Fitch and Dr. C. Giacobbe and the ENGIN-X staff: Dr. S. Kabra and Dr. J. Kelleher for their assistance during set up and data analysis. Finally, we wish to thank the numerous staff and experimental officers at the University of Manchester for their on-going and invaluable assistance with this work, particularly; Prof. M.G. Burke, Dr. J.E. Warren, Dr. J Fellowes, Dr. A. Garner, Mr. G. Harrison, Mr. M. Faulkner, Mr. M. Smith, Mr. A. Forrest and Mr. K. Gyves.

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - Hardfacing alloys provide strong, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant coatings for extreme environments such as those within nuclear reactors. Here, we report an ultra-high-strength Fe-Cr-Ni silicide phase, named π-ferrosilicide, within a hardfacing Fe-based alloy. Electron diffraction tomography has allowed the determination of the atomic structure of this phase. Nanohardness testing indicates that the π-ferrosilicide phase is up to 2.5 times harder than the surrounding austenite and ferrite phases. The compressive strength of the π-ferrosilicide phase is exceptionally high and does not yield despite loading in excess of 1.6 GPa. Such a high-strength silicide phase could not only provide a new type of strong, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant Fe-based coating, replacing more costly and hazardous Co-based alloys for nuclear applications, but also lead to the development of a new class of high-performance silicide-strengthened stainless steels, no longer reliant on carbon for strengthening.

AB - Hardfacing alloys provide strong, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant coatings for extreme environments such as those within nuclear reactors. Here, we report an ultra-high-strength Fe-Cr-Ni silicide phase, named π-ferrosilicide, within a hardfacing Fe-based alloy. Electron diffraction tomography has allowed the determination of the atomic structure of this phase. Nanohardness testing indicates that the π-ferrosilicide phase is up to 2.5 times harder than the surrounding austenite and ferrite phases. The compressive strength of the π-ferrosilicide phase is exceptionally high and does not yield despite loading in excess of 1.6 GPa. Such a high-strength silicide phase could not only provide a new type of strong, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant Fe-based coating, replacing more costly and hazardous Co-based alloys for nuclear applications, but also lead to the development of a new class of high-performance silicide-strengthened stainless steels, no longer reliant on carbon for strengthening.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045255561&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-03875-9

DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-03875-9

M3 - Article

C2 - 29636474

AN - SCOPUS:85045255561

VL - 9

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 1374

ER -