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Synthesis and characterization of NbCr2 Laves phase produced by spark plasma sintering

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Abstract

The NbCr2 Laves phase was fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) using spherical Nb and Cr powders. The experimental results revealed that increasing the sintering temperature to 1773 K can result in the formation of NbCr2 Laves phase as major phase, but it always appeared with trace amounts of Nb and Cr solid solutions. Based on the theoretical calculations, the residual of Nb and Cr solid solutions was attributed to the inhomogeneous distribution of temperature increase from the particle-contacting surface to the center of particle when pulsed current passed through. Moreover, the hardness and fracture toughness of the SPS-processed NbCr2 attained 14.05 ± 0.67 GPa and 8.9 MPa·m1/2, which were 1.6 and 7.4 times of the as-cast NbCr2 Laves phase (1.2 MPa·m1/2). The formation of ductile Nb and Cr solid solutions and fine grains were considered to be the reason for the remarkable enhancements in mechanical properties.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was financially supported by the fund of the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing in NWPU (SKLSP201507, SKLSP201516), the Youth Foundation of Taiyuan University of Technology (2014TD010) and the Qualified Personnel Foundation of Taiyuan University of Technology (tyut-rc201421a).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Material Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi, 030024, China

    K. W. Li & D. Q. Gong

  2. State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    S. M. Li

  3. School of Mechatronics Engineering, Zhengzhou Institute of Aeronautical Industry Management, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450000, China

    K. Gao

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  1. K. W. Li
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  4. D. Q. Gong
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Correspondence to K. W. Li.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX

The sintering setup, thermophysical, and electrical parameters used in the modeling are listed below:

  • d (sample diameter, m) = 2.0 × 10−2

  • Ss (sample cross-sectional area, m2) = 3.14 × 10−4

  • Sd (die cross-sectional area, m2) = 1.26 × 10−3

  • ρs1 (Cr electrical resistivity, Ω m) = 1.29 ×10−7 + 3.87 × 10−10T

  • ρs2 (Nb electrical resistivity, Ω m) = 1.25 × 10−7 + 5.0 × 10−10T

  • ρsd (graphite electrical resistivity, Ω m) = 21 − 3 × 10−2T + 2 × 10−5T2 − 6.4 × 10−9T3 + 7.8 × 10−13T4

  • Δt (current duration, ms) = 40 × 3.3 = 132

  • CP,graphite [specific heat capacity at constant pressure of graphite, J/(g K)] = 0.71

  • CP,Nb [specific heat capacity at constant pressure of Nb, J/(g K)] = 0.26

  • CP,Cr [specific heat capacity at constant pressure of Cr, J/(g K)] = 0.45

  • ρm,graphite (mass density of graphite, g/m3) = 2.1 × 106

  • ρm,Nb (mass density of Nb, g/m3) = 8.57 × 106

  • ρm,Cr (mass density of Cr, g/m3) = 7.22 × 106

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Li, K.W., Li, S.M., Gao, K. et al. Synthesis and characterization of NbCr2 Laves phase produced by spark plasma sintering. Journal of Materials Research 31, 380–387 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.6

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