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A New Theoretical Study of the Cr-Nb System

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Abstract

A new thermodynamic assessment of the binary Cr-Nb system was performed using the CALPHAD method based on a review of the available literature and ab initio calculations for the hypothetical end members of the C15 Laves phase. Recent experiments reported in the literature revealed that there is no C14 type high temperature phase in this system, which is in contrast to most of the literature. A thorough analysis of these reports, however, showed that the C14 phase has never been directly observed and that its presence had been derived from ternary phase diagram data, twinning of the C15 low temperature phase and erroneous interpretations of x-ray diffractograms. Due to the lack of clear evidence in favor of its existence, the C14 phase was not considered a thermodynamically stable compound in the present evaluation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their thanks to Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) for granting computing time for this work on the supercomputer JUROPA. Financial support through the Portfolio Project “Materials Research for Future Energy Supply” funded by the Helmholtz Association and by RFBR Project No. 14-08-31522 мoл_a is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forschungszentrum Jülich, IEK-2, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Clemens Schmetterer, Aurélie Jacob & Torsten Markus

  2. Institute for Materials Applications in Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Augustinerbach 4, 52062, Aachen, Germany

    Alexandra Khvan & Bengt Hallstedt

  3. Thermochemistry of Materials Scientific Research Centre, NUST MISIS, Leninsky Prosp. 4, 119049, Moscow, Russia

    Alexandra Khvan

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  1. Clemens Schmetterer
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Correspondence to Clemens Schmetterer.

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Schmetterer, C., Khvan, A., Jacob, A. et al. A New Theoretical Study of the Cr-Nb System. J. Phase Equilib. Diffus. 35, 434–444 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-014-0313-y

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