Abstract
Results are presented which show the embrittling effect of hydrogen-bearing environments on the near surface region of solids. This effect was indicated by shifts to higher amplitude of the acoustic emission amplitude distributions obtained during low-speed drilling, by the drilling rate, and by scanning electron microscopy. The extent of embrittlement in liquid environments was found to depend on the availability of the hydrogen, which depends on its bonding in the liquid (covalent, partially ionized, ion paired in media of low dielectric constant, etc). The time dependence of this effect is consistent with the permeation of hydrogen in the near surface region. It is proposed that the hydrogen effect on the deformation and fracture of solids is a universal phenomenon affecting the near surface region of metals, ceramics, glasses, semiconductors, ionic crystals, minerals, and rocks (organic solids may be exceptions) and that this embrittlement by hydrogen is one of the origins of the Rebinder-Westwood chemomechanical effect.
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Cuthrell, R.E. The influence of hydrogen on the deformation and fracture of the near surface region of solids: proposed origin of the Rebinder-Westwood effect. J Mater Sci 14, 612–618 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00772721
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00772721