The Mystery of the AuIn 1:1 Phase and Its Incommensurate Structural Variations

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of the Reaction between Al-Si Coatings and Steel

Hot-stamped ultrahigh strength steel components are pivotal to automotive light-weighting. Steel blanks, often coated with an aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) layer to protect them from oxidation and decarburization, are austenitized within a furnace and then simultaneously quenched and formed into shape. The Al-Si coating melts within the furnace and reacts with iron from the steel to yield an intermetallic phase that provides some long-term corrosion protection. During the intermediate liquid phase, some of the coating may transfer to the furnace components, leading to maintenance costs and operational downtime. A detailed understanding of the coating transformation mechanism is needed to avoid such production issues while ensuring that final intermetallic coatings conform to specifications. We introduce cross-sectional Raman microscopic mapping as a method to rapidly elucidate the coating transformation mechanism. Raman spectroscopic fingerprints for relevant intermetallic compounds were determined using synthesized Al-Fe-Si ternary and Al-Fe binary compounds. These fingerprints were used to map the spatial distribution of intermetallic compounds through cross sections of Al-Si-coated 22MnB5 specimens that were heated at temperatures between 570 and 900 °C. These chemical maps show that the intermetallic fraction of the coating does not grow significantly until formation of η (Al5Fe2) at the steel interface, suggesting that η facilitates extraction of iron from the steel and subsequent diffusion through the coating. Under the heating conditions used here, a series of reactions ultimately lead to a silicon-rich τ2 (Al3FeSi) phase on top of the binary η phase. The technique presented here simplifies structural analysis of intermetallic compounds, which will facilitate prototyping of strategies to optimize hot stamping.

Revealing the Epitaxial Interface between Al13Fe4 and Al5Fe2 Enabling Atomic Al Interdiffusion

Steel is the most commonly manufactured material in the world. Its performances can be improved by hot-dip coating with the low weight aluminum metal. The structure of the Al∥Fe interface, which is known to contain a buffer layer made of complex intermetallic compounds such as Al₅Fe₂ and Al₁₃Fe₄, is crucial for the properties. On the basis of surface X-ray diffraction, combined with theoretical calculations, we derive in this work a consistent model at the atomic scale for the complex Al₁₃Fe₄(010)∥Al₅Fe₂(001) interface. The epitaxial relationships are found to be [130]_Al5Fe2∥[010]_Al13Fe4 and [1 1̅0]_Al5Fe2 ∥[100]_Al13Fe4. Interfacial and constrained energies, as well as works of adhesion, calculated for several structural models based on density functional theory, identify the lattice mismatch and the interfacial chemical composition as main factors for the stability of the interface. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest a mechanism of Al diffusion to explain the formation of the complex Al₁₃Fe₄ and Al₅Fe₂ phases at the Al∥Fe interface.

The Mystery of the AuIn 1:1 Phase and Its Incommensurate Structural Variations

In this communication, the AuIn 1:1 phase ( Naturwissenschaften , 1953 , 40 , 437 , DOI: 10.1007/BF00590353 ), and its ordering behavior at various temperatures is investigated. To enable the growth of a X-ray suitable specimen, a tempering routine was established by the interpretation of a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study. In this way, good quality single crystals were grown and measured at the Crystal beamline at Synchrotron SOLEIL. From the acquired data, three variations of this structure could be found at temperatures of 400 °C and 300 °C and room temperature, with differing degrees of incommensurate modulation. Diffuse scattering found at 400 °C was interpreted with the help of a three-dimensional difference pair distribution function (3D-ΔPDF) study.