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Switching nanoprecipitates to resist hydrogen embrittlement in high-strength aluminum alloys. Nat Commun 2022; 13:6860. [PMID: 36400773 PMCID: PMC9674592 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-34628-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Hydrogen drastically embrittles high-strength aluminum alloys, which impedes efforts to develop ultrastrong components in the aerospace and transportation industries. Understanding and utilizing the interaction of hydrogen with core strengthening elements in aluminum alloys, particularly nanoprecipitates, are critical to break this bottleneck. Herein, we show that hydrogen embrittlement of aluminum alloys can be largely suppressed by switching nanoprecipitates from the η phase to the T phase without changing the overall chemical composition. The T phase strongly traps hydrogen and resists hydrogen-assisted crack growth, with a more than 60% reduction in the areal fractions of cracks. The T phase-induced reduction in the concentration of hydrogen at defects and interfaces, which facilitates crack growth, primarily contributes to the suppressed hydrogen embrittlement. Transforming precipitates into strong hydrogen traps is proven to be a potential mitigation strategy for hydrogen embrittlement in aluminum alloys. Hydrogen embrittlement limits the strengthening of aluminum alloys. Here, the authors propose the precipitate switching strategy to effectively control hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength aluminum alloys by utilizing the hydrogen trapping effect at T phase.
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Wei M, Zhang P, Zhou S, Wang X, Wang G, Zhao J. Vacancy clustering behaviors and stable configurations in vanadium metal: First-principles investigations. NUCLEAR MATERIALS AND ENERGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.nme.2022.101296] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
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Zheng RY, Jian WR, Beyerlein IJ, Han WZ. Atomic-Scale Hidden Point-Defect Complexes Induce Ultrahigh-Irradiation Hardening in Tungsten. NANO LETTERS 2021; 21:5798-5804. [PMID: 34228459 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c01637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Tungsten displays high strength in extreme temperature and radiation environments and is considered a promising plasma facing material for fusion nuclear reactors. Unlike other metals, it experiences substantial irradiation hardening, which limits service life and presents safety concerns. The origin of ultrahigh-irradiation hardening in tungsten cannot be well-explained by conventional strengthening theories. Here, we demonstrate that irradiation leads to near 3-fold increases in strength, while the usual defects that are generated only contribute less than one-third of the hardening. An analysis of the distribution of tagged atom-helium ions reveals that more than 87% of vacancies and helium atoms are unaccounted for. A large fraction of helium-vacancy complexes are frozen in the lattice due to high vacancy migration energies. Through a combination of in situ nanomechanical tests and atomistic calculations, we provide evidence that irradiation hardening mainly originates from high densities of atomic-scale hidden point-defect complexes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruo-Yao Zheng
- Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
| | - Wu-Rong Jian
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-5070, United States
| | - Irene J Beyerlein
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-5070, United States
- Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-5070, United States
| | - Wei-Zhong Han
- Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
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Molecular Dynamics Studies of Hydrogen Effect on Intergranular Fracture in α-Iron. MATERIALS 2020; 13:ma13214949. [PMID: 33158092 PMCID: PMC7663515 DOI: 10.3390/ma13214949] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2020] [Revised: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 11/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
In the current study, the effect of hydrogen atoms on the intergranular failure of α-iron is examined by a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The effect of hydrogen embrittlement on the grain boundary (GB) is investigated by diffusing hydrogen atoms into the grain boundaries using a bicrystal body-centered cubic (BCC) model and then deforming the model with a uniaxial tension. The Debye Waller factors are applied to illustrate the volume change of GBs, and the simulation results suggest that the trapped hydrogen atoms in GBs can therefore increase the excess volume of GBs, thus enhancing intergranular failure. When a constant displacement loading is applied to the bicrystal model, the increased strain energy can barely be released via dislocation emission when H is present. The hydrogen pinning effect occurs in the current dislocation slip system, <111>{112}. The hydrogen atoms facilitate cracking via a decrease of the free surface energy and enhance the phase transition via an increase in the local pressure. Hence, the failure mechanism is prone to intergranular failure so as to release excessive pressure and energy near GBs. This study provides a mechanistic framework of intergranular failure, and a theoretical model is then developed to predict the intergranular cracking rate.
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Du JP, Geng WT, Arakawa K, Li J, Ogata S. Hydrogen-Enhanced Vacancy Diffusion in Metals. J Phys Chem Lett 2020; 11:7015-7020. [PMID: 32786653 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c01798] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Vacancy diffusion is fundamental to materials science. Hydrogen atoms bind strongly to vacancies and are often believed to retard vacancy diffusion. Here, we use a potential-of-mean-force method to study the diffusion of vacancies in Cu and Pd. We find H atoms, instead of dragging, enhance the diffusivity of vacancies due to a positive hydrogen Gibbs excess at the saddle-point: that is, the migration saddle attracts more H than the vacancy ground state, characterized by an activation excess ΓHm ≈ 1 H, together with also-positive migration activation volume Ωm and activation entropy Sm. Thus, according to the Gibbs adsorption isotherm generalized to the activation path, a higher μH significantly lowers the migration free-energy barrier. This is verified by ab initio grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations and direct molecular dynamics simulations. This trend is believed to be generic for migrating dislocations, grain boundaries, and so on that also have a higher capacity for attracting H atoms due to a positive activation volume at the migration saddles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun-Ping Du
- Center for Elements Strategy Initiative for Structural Materials, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
- Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
| | - W T Geng
- Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
- University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Kazuto Arakawa
- Next Generation TATARA Co-Creation Centre, Organization for Industrial Innovation, Shimane University, 1060 Nishikawatsu, Matsue 690-8504, Japan
| | - Ju Li
- Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States
| | - Shigenobu Ogata
- Center for Elements Strategy Initiative for Structural Materials, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
- Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering, Osaka University, Osaka 560-8531, Japan
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Wang X, Hatzoglou C, Sneed B, Fan Z, Guo W, Jin K, Chen D, Bei H, Wang Y, Weber WJ, Zhang Y, Gault B, More KL, Vurpillot F, Poplawsky JD. Interpreting nanovoids in atom probe tomography data for accurate local compositional measurements. Nat Commun 2020; 11:1022. [PMID: 32094330 PMCID: PMC7039975 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14832-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2019] [Accepted: 02/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Quantifying chemical compositions around nanovoids is a fundamental task for research and development of various materials. Atom probe tomography (APT) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) are currently the most suitable tools because of their ability to probe materials at the nanoscale. Both techniques have limitations, particularly APT, because of insufficient understanding of void imaging. Here, we employ a correlative APT and STEM approach to investigate the APT imaging process and reveal that voids can lead to either an increase or a decrease in local atomic densities in the APT reconstruction. Simulated APT experiments demonstrate the local density variations near voids are controlled by the unique ring structures as voids open and the different evaporation fields of the surrounding atoms. We provide a general approach for quantifying chemical segregations near voids within an APT dataset, in which the composition can be directly determined with a higher accuracy than STEM-based techniques. Atom probe tomography can image chemical composition at the nanoscale, but our understanding of how it images voids, or empty spaces, is still lacking. Here, the authors combine atom probe tomography, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and field-evaporation theory to show how voids are imaged and subsequently measured.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xing Wang
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
| | - Constantinos Hatzoglou
- Normandie Université, UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, 76000, Rouen, France
| | - Brian Sneed
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Zhe Fan
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Wei Guo
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Ke Jin
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Di Chen
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
| | - Hongbin Bei
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Yongqiang Wang
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
| | - William J Weber
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Yanwen Zhang
- Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.,Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Baptiste Gault
- Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Str, 1, 40237, Düsseldorf, Germany.,Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Royal School of Mine, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
| | - Karren L More
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
| | - Francois Vurpillot
- Normandie Université, UNIROUEN, INSA Rouen, CNRS, Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, 76000, Rouen, France
| | - Jonathan D Poplawsky
- Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
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