Strain glass transition of cobalt phase in a cemented carbide

Abstract

Cemented carbides are hard materials used for the fabrication of cutting tools. They consist of hard micron or sub-micron carbide grains held together in a matrix of a tough metallic binder such as cobalt. The understanding and control of cobalt characteristics are of crucial importance to improve the mechanical properties of WC-Co cemented carbide materials. Indeed, cobalt controls the toughness of the material and its properties seem to condition the durability of cemented carbides. At low temperature, pure cobalt is normally found in hcp structure, while above 426 °C (700 K) it changes to fcc crystalline structure. Remarkably, in cemented carbides, cobalt appears even at low temperature as fcc, otherwise as a mixture of fcc and hcp. It is unsure if these crystal structures are due to the presence of internal stresses or due to W and C soluted atoms. However, this paper demonstrates that cobalt in WC-10wt.%Co cemented carbide may show some characteristics of a glass transition at around 669 °C (942 K) in the 1 Hz frequency range, inducing a glassy state to cobalt, which is of great interest from a fundamental point of view, however challenging to control in materials technology.