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9Cr–1W steel strengthened by AlN and BN dispersion

  • Metals & corrosion
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Abstract

Ferritic-martensitic steels of 9Cr–1W type strengthened by oxide dispersion (ODS) are candidate structural materials of in-vessel components of proposed sodium-cooled fast reactors and fusion reactors. As a promising alternative, this work aimed to design ferritic-martensitic 9Cr–1W steels of Eurofer type strengthened by a homogeneous dispersion of nitrides. AlN and BN were selected for this pioneering study, and the two nitride dispersion strengthened (NDS) steels were prepared by mechanical alloying and compacting using spark plasma sintering (SPS). Their mechanical properties were assessed by tensile tests ranging from room temperature to 800 °C and compared to the tensile characteristics of conventional as well as oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) 9Cr–1W steels. The strength of the two NDS steels presented here was comparable or even higher than that of the conventional and the ODS variants. Furthermore, the uniform plastic strain behaviour of the NDS steels was similar to the ODS counterparts prepared by HIP or SPS from mechanically alloyed powders. In addition, the BN reinforcement effectively prevented large plastic deformation at temperatures above 600 °C that would typically result in a significant increase in total elongation, a phenomenon encountered in 9Cr–1W steels. This quality could open a new application window and potentially lead to the development of heat-resistant low-chromium 9Cr–1W type steels.

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Acknowledgements

The Czech Science Foundation project 20-20873S financially supported this work. In addition, CzechNanoLab project LM2018110 funded by MEYS CR is gratefully acknowledged for the financial support of the measurements/sample fabrication at CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Zizkova 513/22, 616 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Hynek Hadraba, Zdenek Chlup & Ivo Kubena

  2. Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Za Slovankou 1782/3, 182 00, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Cizek

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  1. Hynek Hadraba
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  2. Zdenek Chlup
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  3. Jan Cizek
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  4. Ivo Kubena
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Contributions

HH Conceptualisation, Methodology, Investigation, Writing- Original draft preparation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; ZC Investigation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; JC Investigation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing; IK Investigation, Writing- Reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Hynek Hadraba.

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Handling Editor: Megumi Kawasaki.

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Hadraba, H., Chlup, Z., Cizek, J. et al. 9Cr–1W steel strengthened by AlN and BN dispersion. J Mater Sci 57, 12572–12584 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07395-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-022-07395-2

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