Extraordinary high ductility/strength of the interface designed bulk W-ZrC alloy plate at relatively low temperature

Z M Xie; R Liu; S Miao; X D Yang; T Zhang; X P Wang; Q F Fang; C S Liu; G N Luo; Y Y Lian; X Liu

doi:10.1038/srep16014

Extraordinary high ductility/strength of the interface designed bulk W-ZrC alloy plate at relatively low temperature

Sci Rep. 2015 Nov 4:5:16014. doi: 10.1038/srep16014.

Authors

Z M Xie^{1

2}, R Liu^{1

2}, S Miao^{1

2}, X D Yang^{1

2}, T Zhang^{1

2}, X P Wang^{1

2}, Q F Fang^{1

2}, C S Liu^{1

2}, G N Luo³, Y Y Lian⁴, X Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
² University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
³ Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
⁴ Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

The refractory tungsten alloys with high ductility/strength/plasticity are highly desirable for a wide range of critical applications. Here we report an interface design strategy that achieves 8.5 mm thick W-0.5 wt. %ZrC alloy plates with a flexural strength of 2.5 GPa and a strain of 3% at room temperature (RT) and ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of about 100 °C. The tensile strength is about 991 MPa at RT and 582 MPa at 500 °C, as well as total elongation is about 1.1% at RT and as large as 41% at 500 °C, respectively. In addition, the W-ZrC alloy plate can sustain 3.3 MJ/m(2) thermal load without any cracks. This processing route offers the special coherent interfaces of grain/phase boundaries (GB/PBs) and the diminishing O impurity at GBs, which significantly strengthens GB/PBs and thereby enhances the ductility/strength/plasticity of W alloy. The design thought can be used in the future to prepare new alloys with higher ductility/strength.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't