Interfacial superstructures and chemical bonding transitions at metal-ceramic interfaces

Can Yang; Chongze Hu; Congying Xiang; Hongbo Nie; Xinfu Gu; Lin Xie; Jiaqing He; Wenqing Zhang; Zhiyang Yu; Jian Luo

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf6667

Interfacial superstructures and chemical bonding transitions at metal-ceramic interfaces

Sci Adv. 2021 Mar 12;7(11):eabf6667. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf6667. Print 2021 Mar.

Authors

Can Yang¹, Chongze Hu², Congying Xiang¹, Hongbo Nie³, Xinfu Gu⁴, Lin Xie⁵, Jiaqing He⁵, Wenqing Zhang⁵, Zhiyang Yu^{6

5

7}, Jian Luo⁸

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China.
² Department of NanoEngineering, Program of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Baise University, Baise 533000, P. R. China.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, P. R. China.
⁵ Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, P. R. China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, P. R. China. jluo@alum.mit.edu yuzyemlab@fzu.edu.cn.
⁷ Xiamen Tungsten Co. Ltd., Xiamen, Fujian 361126, P. R. China.
⁸ Department of NanoEngineering, Program of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. jluo@alum.mit.edu yuzyemlab@fzu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Metal-ceramic interfaces are scientifically interesting and technologically important. However, the transition of chemical bonding character from a metal to a nonoxide ceramic is not well understood. The effects of solute segregation and interfacial structural transitions are even more elusive. In this study, aberration-corrected electron microscopy is combined with atomic-resolution energy-dispersive x-ray and electron energy loss spectroscopy to investigate Ti-, V-, and Cr-segregated WC-Co interfaces as model systems. The experiments reveal the general anisotropic formation of reconstructed trilayer-like superstructures with segregant-specific compositional profiles that facilitate the transition from covalent to metallic electronic structures. Density functional theory calculations confirm the gradual increasing metallicity from WC to Co in the interfacial trilayers via increasing metallic solute concentration. This study uncovers unprecedented details of the sophisticated interfacial superstructures at metal-ceramic interfaces. It sheds light on how a metal transits to a ceramic at a "general" interface with strong segregation.

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