Improved ductility of Ni3Si by microalloying with boron or carbon

Abstract

The effects of boron and carbon additions on the tendency for intergranular fracture in trinickel silicide intermetallics are reported. Melt spinning of Ni77Si23 alloyed with 0.1 at. pet boron results in full bend ductility and complete transgranular fracture compared with brittle intergranular fracture for the unmodified compound. Alloying with 0.1 at. pet carbon also produces full bend ductility but a mixed mode failure (≈30 pct transgranular). For both carbon and boron additions, reducing the Ni concentration of the base compound results in a greater percentage of intergranular fracture. The boron solubility limit depends on the Ni concentration of the base compound. For Ni77Si23, the solubility limit is between 0.1 and 0.2 at. pet boron. For compounds with silicon concentrations of 23.5 and 24.0 at. pct, the solubility limit is less than 0.1 at. pct boron. Boron additions above the solubility limit result in Ni3B precipitates which degrade the bend ductility and increase the percentage of integranular fracture. Alloying with carbon above the solubility limit (<0.1 at. pct) produces graphite precipitation. For Ni77Si23, increasing the carbon concentration from 0.1 to 1.0 at. pct resulted in no change in the ductility. Auger examination of the grain boundary composition showed strong segregation of both boron and carbon. Enrichment in silicon concentration was also observed.