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Al stabilized TiC twinning platelets

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Abstract

Titanium carbide (TiC) twins are believed to be extremely unstable because of their high twin boundary energy. Here, we report that TiC twins are always presented in platelets with dimensions of 2–3 µm in length and less than 300 nm in width. In-depth microstructural characterizations by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy demonstrate that Al atoms at the twin boundary play a decisive role in stabilizing TiC twins. With different amounts of Al, perfect and defective TiC twins are formed. For perfect twins, three types of twin boundaries can be formed depending on the amount of remaining Al at the twin boundary. With inadequate Al, the TiC twins become defective with certain degrees of deviation from the perfect twin orientation. Based on a detailed analysis of the microstructure of the twin boundaries, a mechanism for the formation and stabilization of TiC twins is proposed.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High-Performance Ceramic Division, Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Hui Zhang, Xiaohui Wang & Zhaojin Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Hui Zhang & Zhaojin Li

  3. Science and Technology of Advanced Functional Composite Laboratory, ARIMPT, Beijing, 100076, China

    Yanchun Zhou

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  1. Hui Zhang
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  2. Xiaohui Wang
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Correspondence to Yanchun Zhou.

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Zhang, H., Wang, X., Li, Z. et al. Al stabilized TiC twinning platelets. Journal of Materials Research 29, 1113–1121 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.80

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.80

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