Amorphization and Nano-Crystallization of Ni-Nb Coating on GH3039 Alloys by High Current Pulsed Electron Beam

In this paper, the Ni-Nb coatings were successfully prepared onto the GH3039 alloys by High current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB). The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results confirmed that the Ni-Nb layer of 10-pulsed samples exhibited partial amorphization, which was consisted of γ-Ni particles, rod-like Ni₃Nb particles and nano Ni₃Nb with 30 nm in size. After 20-pulsed irradiation, the results show that only Ni₃Nb clusters with around 3 nm in size were dispersed in fully amorphization layer. With increased pulse number to 30, the nano-particles embedded into the amorphous layer were grown up, the size of which was about 8 nm. The microstructure evolution during HCPEB irradiation was from the partial amorphous to fully amorphous and then to nano-crystallization. The 20-pulsed samples possessed the best hardness and corrosion resistance. The ultrafine clusters uniformly embedded into amorphous layer were main reason for improving properties.