Unveiling interactions of non-metallic inclusions within advanced ultra-high-strength steel: A spectro-microscopic determination and first-principles elucidation

Harishchandra Singh*, Tuomas Alatarvas, Andrey A. Kistanov, S. Assa Aravindh, Shubo Wang, Lin Zhu, Brice Sarpi, Yuran Niu, Alexei Zakharov, F. M.F. de Groot, Marko Huttula, Wei Cao, Timo Fabritius

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Determining non-metallic inclusions (NMIs) are essential to engineer ultra-high-strength steel as they play decisive role on performance and critical to probe via conventional techniques. Herein, advanced Synchrotron X-ray absorption coupled with photoemission electron microscopy and first-principles calculations are employed to provide the structure, local bonding structure and electronic properties of several NMI model systems and their interaction mechanism within and the steel matrix. B K-, N K-, Ca L2,3- and Ti L2,3-edge spectra show that the additional B prefers to result in h-BN exhibiting strong interaction with Ca2+. Such Ca2+-based phases also stabilize through TiN, revealing the irregular coordination of Ca2+. Observed intriguing no interaction between TiN and BN is further supported with the first-principles calculations, wherein unfavorable combination of TiN and h-BN and stabilization of bigger sized Ca2+-based inclusions have been found. These observations can help to optimize the interaction mechanism among various inclusions as well as steel matrix.

Original languageEnglish
Article number113791
Pages (from-to)1-6
JournalScripta Materialia
Volume197
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2021

Keywords

  • DFT
  • Non-metallic inclusion
  • Synchrotron spectro-microscopy
  • Ultra-high-strength steel
  • X-ray absorption spectroscopy

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