Ductility Enhancement of Molybdenum Phase by Nano-sizedd Oxide Dispersions

Abstract

The objective of this research is to understand and to remedy the impurity effects for room-temperature ductility enhancement of molybdenum (Mo) based alloys by the inclusion of nano-sized metal oxide dispersions. This research combines theoretical, computational, and experimental efforts. The results will help to formulate systematic strategies in searching for better composed Mo-based alloys with optimal mechanical properties. For this project, majority of the research effort was directed to atomistic modeling to identify the mechanisms responsible for the oxygen embrittling and ductility enhancement based on fundamental electronic structure analysis. Through first principles molecular dynamics simulations, it was found that the embrittling impurity species were attracted to the metal oxide interface, consistent with previous experiments. Further investigation on the electronic structures reveals that the presence of embrittling species degrades the quality of the metallic chemical bonds in the hosting matrix in a number of ways, the latter providing the source of ductility. For example, the spatial flexibility of the bonds is reduced, and localization of the impurity states occurs to pin the dislocation flow. Rice’s criterion has been invoked to explain the connections of electronic structure and mechanical properties. It was also found that when impurity species become attracted to the metal oxide interface, some of the detrimental effects are alleviated, thus explaining the observed ductility enhancement effects. These understandings help to develop predictive capabilities to facilitate the design and optimization of Mo and other high temperature alloys (e.g. ODS alloys) for fossil energy materials applications. Based on the theoretical and computational studies, the experimental work includes the preparation of Mo powders mixed with candidate nano-sized metal oxides, which were then vacuum hot-pressed to make the Mo alloys. Several powder mixing methods were evaluated, however, the Mo alloys produced showed little improvement of room-temperature ductility. Finally, toward the end of the research project, a particle mixing process (Hosokawa mechano chemical bonding technology) was applied and the sample Mo alloys showed much improved room-temperature ductility. Follow-up mechanical properties evaluations on the as-processed Mo alloys were carried out using an in-house developed micro-indentation technique which is suitable for in-situ material mechanical properties measurement and ductility/brittle evaluation on small-size sample alloys. Relevant experimental results of the micro-indentation tests are presented.