Tempering mechanism of lath martensite induced in IF steel under high pressure

In this paper,low-and high-strength lath martensite(350 and 640 HV)was fabricated in an IF steel via high pressure martensitic transformation.The microstructure and the softening during their tempering from 200°C to 800°C for 1 h were systematically investigated.A carbon-irrelevant tempering process was proposed,exhibiting a three-stage structural evolution pattern depending upon the tempering de-gree(1-(HV-HV FP)/(HV NP-HV FP),where the HV is the instant hardness,HV NP is the non-tempered hard-ness and HV FP is the fully tempered hardness):(1)low tempered(<10%),removing the loose dislocations and dislocation boundaries within martensitic variants;(2)medium tempered(10%-50%),eliminating the martensitic variant laths via the migration of their terminal tips;(3)highly tempered(>50%),clearing up the remained variant laths via the migration of the triple junctions.Martensite-type microstructure is tailored by low-index lamellar variant boundaries and is thus intrinsically thermally stable,whereas the mobile terminal tips decrease the tempering resistance.The underlying mechanism for such carbon-irrelevant process was discussed and the potential effect on the tempering behavior of carbon-contained martensite was highlighted.

{112}<111>Twins or Twinned Variants Induced by Martensitic Transformation?

Twinned substructure in lath martensite was induced in the interstitial free(IF)steel via a high pressure thermal cycle(heating up to 1100℃and holding for 30 min,cooling at 10℃/s to room temperature under a pressure of 4 GPa).Experimental observations and theoretical simulation confrm that the twinned substructure has the origin related to the twinned variants rather than the bcc{112}<111>twins,while extra difraction spots were caused by crystal overlapping rather than any extra phase.The diferences in crystallography and electron difraction behavior between twinned variants and{112}<111>twins were discussed in detail.

Origin and the Hardening Mechanism of Twinned Lenticular Martensite in a Fe-33Ni Alloy

The twinned substructure of lenticular martensite in a quenched Fe–33Ni alloy was studied.In contrary to the traditional viewpoint that the twinned laths come from{112}<111>deformation twins and show insignificant hardening,we demonstrate that they are actually originated from the twinned Kurdjumov Sachs(KS)variants and can give rise to 3–4 times hardening up to~420 HV(~130 HV for the starting sample).The underlying mechanisms responsible for the propensity for twinned variants and the carbon-independent hardening for Fe–Ni system were discussed.

MXenes induce epitaxial growth of size-controlled noble nanometals:A case study for surface enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)

Noble nanometals are of significance in both scientific interest and technological applications,which are usually obtained by conventional wet-chemical synthesis.Organic surfactants are always used in the synthesis to prevent unexpected overgrowth and aggregation of noble nanometals.However,the surfactants are hard to remove and may interfere with plasmonic and catalytic studies,remaining surfactant-free synthesis of noble nanometals a challenge.Herein,we report an approach to epitaxial growth of sizecontrolled noble nanometals on MXenes.As piloted by density functional theory calculations,along with work function experimental determination,kinetic and spectroscopic studies,epitaxial growth of noble nanometals is initiated via a mechanism that involves an in situ redox reaction.In the redox,MXenes as two-dimensional solid reductants whose work functions are compatible with the reduction potentials of noble metal cations,enable spontaneous donation of electrons from the MXenes to noble metal cations and reduce the cations into nanoscale metallic metals on the outmost surface of MXenes.Neither surfactants nor external reductants are used during the whole synthesis process,which addresses a long-standing interference issue of surfactant and external reductant in the conventional wet-chemical synthesis.Moreover,the MXenes induced noble nanometals are size-controlled.Impressively,noble nanometals firmly anchored on MXenes exhibit excellent performance towards surface enhanced Raman scattering.Our developed strategy will promote the nanostructure-controlled synthesis of noble nanometals,offering new opportunities to further improve advanced functional properties towards practical applications.

Synthesis of Monodisperse CdS Nanorods Catalyzed by Au Nanoparticles

Semiconductor nanocrystals(dots,rods,wires,etc.)exhibit a wide range of electrical and optical properties that differ from those of the corresponding bulk materials.These properties depend on both nanocrystal size and shape.Compared with nanodots,nanorods have an additional degree of freedom,the length or aspect ratio,and reduced symmetry,which leads to anisotropic properties.In this paper,we report the Au nanoparticle-catalyzed colloidal synthesis of monodisperse CdS nanorods.Based on systematic high resolution transmission electron microscopy studies,we propose a growth mechanism for these nanorods.

Twinned substructure in lath martensite of water quenched Fe-0.2%C and Fe-0.8%C steels

In the present investigation,twinned substructures within lath martensite of two water quenched steels(0.2 wt.%C and 0.8 wt.%C)were studied.The lath martensite has typical hierarchical packet-block-lath with dislocation substructure.Besides,laths that are misoriented by<011>/70.5°or<111>/60° and bordered by{011}plane,namely twinned laths,are observed,of which the density increases and the scale decreases as more carbons were presented.Such twinned laths have body centered cubic(bcc)crystal structure,belonging to twinned variants following the classical Kurdjumov-Sachs(K-S)orientation relationship with respect to the parent austenite.Unlike bcc{112}<111>twins,twinned variants produce strong double diffraction and in turn the extra diffraction spots that are commonly observed in the martensite in steels with wide range of carbon contents.

Experimental Determination of Deformation Induced Lattice Rotation by EBSD Technique for Slip System Analysis

A method was proposed to experimentally determine the deformation induced lattice rotation by electron backscatter diffraction （EBSD） technique, based on which the activated slip systems could be predicted. The method is to create a project file including the EBSD data of the sample before and after deformation, which allows the lattice rotation to be calculated and visualized using the commercial EBSD software. This method was applied to a polycrystalline Ni subjected to quasi-static compression. The lattice rotation of one grain was calculated and visualized and the activated slip systems were predicted. The comparison with the slip systems predicted by full-constraints （FC） Taylor model highlights the advantage of the present method.

Fabrication of nanostructure in inner-surface of AISI 304 stainless steel pipe with surface plastic deformation

In the present investigation, a pipe inner-surface grinding（PISG） technique was developed to fabricate nanostructure in the inner-surface of an austenitic 304 stainless steel pipe. PISG was performed by high speed shearing with hard sphere tips, leading to gradient distribution of strain, strain rate and strain gradient along depth. Nano-austenite with an average boundary spacing of 20 nm was generated, followed by deformation microstructure characterized by shear bands, multi-and uni-directional twins and planar dislocation arrays. Deformation induced grain refinement of austenitic 304 stainless steel with low stacking fault energy（SFE） covering 4–5 order＇s magnitude of length scales toward nanometer regime was unified.

Strain gradient induced grain refinement far below the size limit in a low carbon hypoeutectoid steel(0.19 wt%C)via pipe inner surface grinding treatment

A low carbon hypoeutectoid steel(0.19 wt%C)with proeutectoid ferrite and pearlite dual-components was subjected to surface plastic deformation via pipe inner surface grinding(PISG)at room temperature.The deformation microstructures for each component were systematically characterized along depth,and the patterns of structural evolution toward nanometer regime as well as the governing parameters were addressed.Proeutectoid ferrite grains were refined down to 17 nm,and the pattern covering a length scale of 4–5 orders of magnitude from micron-to nanometer-scale follows:formation of cellular dislocation structure(CDS),elongated dislocation structure(EDS),ultrafine lamellar structure(UFL)and finally the nanolaminated structure(NL).The pearlite experiences the deformation and refinement,and finally the transforming the ultrafine pearlite(UFP)into nanolaminated pearlite(NLP)with the ferrite lamellae as thin as 20 nm.Refinement for both UFL(UFP)and NL(NLP)can be realized via forming novel extended boundaries within ferrite lamellae.A critical lattice curvature of~2.8°is required for forming such extended boundary,corresponding to a minimum strain gradient of 0.25μm^(-1)for a 100 nm-thick lamella.Refinement below size limit(expressed by lamellar thickness d_Tin nm)is correlated with the strain gradient(χ,inμm^(-1))by:d_T=12.5/x.Refinement contributions from strain gradient caused by PISG processing and material heterogeneity were discussed.

On the microstructural evolution pattern toward nano-scale of an AISI 304 stainless steel during high strain rate surface deformation

In the present investigation,an austenitic AISI 304 stainless steel was subjected to high strain rate surface deformation by Pipe Inner-Surface Grinding(PISG)technique.The depth-dependent deformation parameters(strain,strain rate and strain gradient)were evaluated and the microstructures were systematically characterized.Microstructural evolution from millimeter-to nano-scale was explored,with special attention paid to the localized deformation.Microstructural evolution begins with the formation of planar dislocation arrays and the twin-matrix lamellae,which is followed by the localized deformation characterized by the initiation and the development of shear bands.A twinning-dominated process that was supplemented with dislocation slip-dominated one governed the microstructural evolution inside shear bands.The twin-matrix lamellae transform into extended/lamellar structure and finally the nanosized grains.Austenitic grains were substantially refined and martensitic transformation was effectively suppressed,of which the underlying mechanisms were analyzed.

Twinned Martensitic Substructure in a Water Quenched Fe–1.0 wt%C Alloy

A Fe–1.0 wt%C alloy was quenched into water from 1100 ℃,leading to lath martensite and plate martensite of body-centered tetragonal structure.Both these two martensites have the twinned substructure that generates mirror symmetric diff raction patterns with extra diff raction spots around n/3(112).The twinned substructure has the origin from twinned martensitic variants,namely twin-related crystals separated by{110},rather than{112}<111>deformation twins.Tetragonality eff ect on the electron double diff raction of twinned variants was discussed.

Evaluation of Stored Energy from Microstructure of Multi-component Nanostructured Cu

A polycrystalline Cu of 99.995% purity has been deformed by dynamic plastic deformation at liquid nitrogen temperature to a strain of 2.1 （LNT-DPD Cu）. Three distinct regions that are dominated by dislocation slip, shear banding and nanotwinning, form a multi-component nanostructure. The microstructure of each region has been quantified by transmission electron microscopy assisted by Kikuchi line analysis. Based on the structural parameters the stored energy of each region was evaluated, and the total energy can be assumed to be a linear additivity of that in each region weighted by the respective volume fraction. A microstructure based evaluation of the stored energy of multi-component nanostructure has been proposed.