Zhang B, Zhu Q, Xu C, Li C, Ma Y, Ma Z, Liu S, Shao R, Xu Y, Jiang B, Gao L, Pang X, He Y, Chen G, Qiao L. Atomic-scale insights on hydrogen trapping and exclusion at incoherent interfaces of nanoprecipitates in martensitic steels.
Nat Commun 2022;
13:3858. [PMID:
35790737 PMCID:
PMC9256589 DOI:
10.1038/s41467-022-31665-x]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Accepted: 06/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Hydrogen is well known to embrittle high-strength steels and impair their corrosion resistance. One of the most attractive methods to mitigate hydrogen embrittlement employs nanoprecipitates, which are widely used for strengthening, to trap and diffuse hydrogen from enriching at vulnerable locations within the materials. However, the atomic origin of hydrogen-trapping remains elusive, especially in incoherent nanoprecipitates. Here, by combining in-situ scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy and aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, we unveil distinct scenarios of hydrogen-precipitate interaction in a high-strength low-alloyed martensitic steel. It is found that not all incoherent interfaces are trapping hydrogen; some may even exclude hydrogen. Atomic-scale structural and chemical features of the very interfaces suggest that carbon/sulfur vacancies on the precipitate surface and tensile strain fields in the nearby matrix likely determine the hydrogen-trapping characteristics of the interface. These findings provide fundamental insights that may lead to a better coupling of precipitation-strengthening strategy with hydrogen-insensitive designs.
By trapping hydrogen, nanoprecipitates can mitigate the hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steels. Here, the authors report direct evidences on the structural and chemical features underlying distinct hydrogen-trapping behaviors at the incoherent interfaces of precipitates and steel matrix.
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