Engineering metal-carbide hydrogen traps in steels

Pang-Yu Liu; Boning Zhang; Ranming Niu; Shao-Lun Lu; Chao Huang; Maoqiu Wang; Fuyang Tian; Yong Mao; Tong Li; Patrick A Burr; Hongzhou Lu; Aimin Guo; Hung-Wei Yen; Julie M Cairney; Hao Chen; Yi-Sheng Chen

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45017-4

Engineering metal-carbide hydrogen traps in steels

Nat Commun. 2024 Jan 25;15(1):724. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45017-4.

Authors

Pang-Yu Liu^#^{1

2}, Boning Zhang^#^{3

4}, Ranming Niu^#^{1

2}, Shao-Lun Lu^{1

5}, Chao Huang^{1

2}, Maoqiu Wang⁶, Fuyang Tian⁷, Yong Mao⁴, Tong Li⁸, Patrick A Burr⁹, Hongzhou Lu¹⁰, Aimin Guo¹⁰, Hung-Wei Yen^{11

12}, Julie M Cairney^{13

14}, Hao Chen¹⁵, Yi-Sheng Chen^{16

17

18}

Affiliations

¹ Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
² School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsing Hua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
⁴ Materials Genome Institute, School of Materials and Energy, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, China.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.
⁶ Central Iron & Steel Research Institute Company Limited, Beijing, 100081, China.
⁷ Institute for Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
⁸ Institute for Materials, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, 44801, Germany.
⁹ School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
¹⁰ CITIC Metal Co., Beijing, 100027, China.
¹¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. homer.yen@ntu.edu.tw.
¹² Advanced Research Center For Green Materials Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan. homer.yen@ntu.edu.tw.
¹³ Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. julie.cairney@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁴ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. julie.cairney@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsing Hua University, Beijing, 100084, China. hao.chen@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. yi-sheng.chen@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁷ School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. yi-sheng.chen@sydney.edu.au.
¹⁸ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, 10617, Taiwan. yi-sheng.chen@sydney.edu.au.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Hydrogen embrittlement reduces the durability of the structural steels required for the hydrogen economy. Understanding how hydrogen interacts with the materials plays a crucial role in managing the embrittlement problems. Theoretical models have indicated that carbon vacancies in metal carbide precipitates are effective hydrogen traps in steels. Increasing the number of carbon vacancies in individual metal carbides is important since the overall hydrogen trapping capacity can be leveraged by introducing abundant metal carbides in steels. To verify this concept, we compare a reference steel containing titanium carbides (TiCs), which lack carbon vacancies, with an experimental steel added with molybdenum (Mo), which form Ti-Mo carbides comprising more carbon vacancies than TiCs. We employ theoretical and experimental techniques to examine the hydrogen trapping behavior of the carbides, demonstrating adding Mo alters the hydrogen trapping mechanism, enabling hydrogen to access carbon vacancy traps within the carbides, leading to an increase in trapping capacity.

Abstract

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