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Role of plastic deformation in tailoring ultrafine microstructure in nanotwinned diamond for enhanced hardness

塑性变形在纳米孪晶金刚石微观组织超细化中的作用

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Abstract

Nanotwinned diamond (nt-diamond), which demonstrates unprecedented hardness and stability, is synthesized through the martensitic transformation of onion carbons at high pressure and high temperature (HPHT). Its hardness and stability increase with decreasing twin thickness at the nanoscale. However, the formation mechanism of nanotwinning substructures within diamond nanograins is not well established. Here, we characterize the nanotwins in nt-diamonds synthesized under different HPHT conditions. Our observation shows that the nanotwin thickness reaches a minimum at ~ 20 GPa, below which phase-transformation twins and deformation twins coexist. Then, we use the density-functional-based tight-binding method and kinetic dislocation theory to investigate the subsequent plastic deformation mechanism in these pre-existing phase-transformation diamond twins. Our results suggest that pressure-dependent conversion of the plastic deformation mechanism occurs at a critical synthetic pressure for nt-diamond, which explains the existence of the minimum twin thickness. Our findings provide guidance on optimizing the synthetic conditions for fabricating nt-diamond with higher hardness and stability.

摘要

在高温高压条件下以洋葱碳为原料合成的纳米孪晶金刚石具有前所未有的硬度和稳定性, 且二者随纳米孪晶厚度的减小而提高. 目前为止, 在金刚石纳米晶中纳米孪晶的形成机制尚不明确. 本研究通过分析在不同条件下合成的纳米孪晶金刚石块材中的孪晶厚度, 发现在合成压力约为20 GPa时孪晶厚度达到一个极小值(~5 nm). TEM结果表明在合成压力低于20 GPa时, 纳米孪晶金刚石中同时存在因马氏体相变而形成的相变孪晶和塑性形变所导致的形变孪晶. 针对马氏体相变后形成的相变孪晶内部塑性变形, 基于密度泛函理论的紧束缚方法和位错运动学理论的分析表明: 纳米孪晶金刚石的塑性变形存在一个依赖于压力的机制转变, 而机制转变的临界压力能够解释孪晶厚度随压力变化时出现的极小值. 本研究对通过优化合成条件制备出更高硬度和稳定性的纳米孪晶金刚石具有指导意义.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51421091, 51332005, 51572225, 51272227, 51172197, 51525205 and 51672239) and the US National Science Foundation (EAR-1361276).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, China

    Wentao Hu  (胡文涛), Bin Wen  (温斌), Jianwei Xiao  (肖建伟), Dongli Yu  (于栋利), Zhisheng Zhao  (赵智胜), Julong He  (何巨龙), Zhongyuan Liu  (柳忠元), Bo Xu  (徐波) & Yongjun Tian  (田永君)

  2. Center for High Pressure Science & Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Quan Huang  (黄权)

  3. Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60439, USA

    Yanbin Wang  (王雁宾)

Authors
  1. Wentao Hu  (胡文涛)
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  2. Bin Wen  (温斌)
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  3. Quan Huang  (黄权)
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  5. Dongli Yu  (于栋利)
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  6. Yanbin Wang  (王雁宾)
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  7. Zhisheng Zhao  (赵智胜)
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  8. Julong He  (何巨龙)
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  9. Zhongyuan Liu  (柳忠元)
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  10. Bo Xu  (徐波)
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  11. Yongjun Tian  (田永君)
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yongjun Tian  (田永君).

Additional information

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Wentao Hu is a senior experimentalist at theCollege ofMaterials Science and Engineering, YanshanUniversity. He received his PhD degree fromYanshan University in 2013. His research interests include superhardmaterials and transmission electron microscopy.

Quan Huang works at HPSTAR as a postdoctoral fellow. He received his PhD degree fromYanshan University in 2015. His research interests include the design and synthesis of novelmetastablematerials under high pressure and high temperature.

Bin Wen is a professor at the College of Materials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University. He received his PhD degree from Dalian University of Technology in 2006. His research interests include theoretical calculation and molecular dynamics simulation.

Yongjun Tian is a professor at the College ofMaterials Science and Engineering, Yanshan University. He received his PhD degree from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 1994, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Universität Jena supported by Humboldt Research Fellowships from1996 to 1998. His research interests include the design and synthesis of novel metastable materials.

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Hu, W., Wen, B., Huang, Q. et al. Role of plastic deformation in tailoring ultrafine microstructure in nanotwinned diamond for enhanced hardness. Sci. China Mater. 60, 178–185 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-016-5161-2

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