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Chinese Journal of Materials Research  2024, Vol. 38 Issue (10): 759-767    DOI: 10.11901/1005.3093.2023.561
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Preparation and Formation Mechanism of Fe-Al Coating on 316L Stainless Steel by Pack Cementation Aluminizing
WEN Feng1, ZHANG Dongxun1(), WANG Wei1, TENG Xinyue2, CHU Xinxin1
1.Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
2.College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Technology, Shanghai 201400, China
Cite this article: 

WEN Feng, ZHANG Dongxun, WANG Wei, TENG Xinyue, CHU Xinxin. Preparation and Formation Mechanism of Fe-Al Coating on 316L Stainless Steel by Pack Cementation Aluminizing. Chinese Journal of Materials Research, 2024, 38(10): 759-767.

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Abstract  

The pack cementation aluminizing method is a common process for preparing tritium barrier coatings. A dense and continuous Fe-Al coating can be prepared on the surface of stainless steels, while the microstructure of the aluminide layer has an important effect on the barrier properties of the top Al2O3 film formed on the coating. Herein, Fe-Al aluminide coating was prepared on 316L stainless steel via pack cementation method with NH4Cl as activator. The surface, cross-sectional morphology, phase composition of the Fe-Al coating was characterized by means of optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results show that the aluminized coatings prepared at different temperatures are mainly composed of Fe2Al5 and FeAl3. The thickness of the aluminized coating increases with the increase of temperature, and shows a multi-layered structure. When the aluminizing temperature is between 650oC and 750oC, the aluminizing coating shows a serrated structure embedded in the substrate. As the temperature increases, the serrated morphology gradually disappears and the surface quality of the aluminizing coating deteriorates; With the increasing aluminizing time, the thickness of the aluminized coating gradually increases, but does not affect its phase structure. In addition, the formation process of the aluminizing coating was analyzed in terms of the thermodynamics stabilities of its structure and conponents. The FeAl3 phase was formed on the surface of the substrate at the initial stage of the reaction, however, the growth rate of the Fe2Al5 phase was much higher than that of the FeAl3 phase, thereby, the former will inhibit the growth of the later once the former emerges at the initial stage, which led to the growth of the FeAl3 phase was suppressed. The Fe3Al phase begins to form only when the temperature is lower than 422oC. On the basis of kinetics, a kinetic model of aluminizing process was established and the diffusion activation energy was calculated.

Key words:  metallic materials      tritium barrier coating      pack aluminizing      Fe-Al layer      microstructure     
Received:  24 November 2023     
ZTFLH:  TL341  
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(11935011)
Corresponding Authors:  ZHANG Dongxun, Tel: 18616354512, E-mail: zhangdongxun@sinap.ac.cn

URL: 

https://www.cjmr.org/EN/10.11901/1005.3093.2023.561     OR     https://www.cjmr.org/EN/Y2024/V38/I10/759

ElementCrNiMoMnSiCFe
Content16.0~18.010.0~14.02.0~3.0≤2.0≤1.0≤0.03Bal.
Table 1  Alloy composition of 316L stainless steel (mass fraction, %)
Sample1234567891011
Temperature / oC600650700750750750750750800850900
Time / h555135710555
Table 2  Experimental scheme of pack aluminizing
Fig.1  XRD patterns of Fe-Al aluminized layer prepared at different aluminizing temperatures
Fig.2  Metallographic photos of the surface morphology of the sample at different aluminizing temperatures
Fig.3  SEM photos of the cross-section morphology of the aluminized layer at different aluminizing temperatures
Fig.4  SEM photos of the cross-section morphology of the aluminized layer at 900oC
Fig.5  XRD patterns of Fe-Al aluminized layer prepared at different aluminizing time
Temperature / oCSpotElements / %, atom fraction
AlFeCrNi
600156.1219.8019.464.62
2059.0618.9210.76
900160.0420.625.292.50
253.0123.625.636.63
340.9431.278.579.17
4056.1214.5710.56
Table 3  Corresponding to the elemental composition scanned at each point in Fig.3a and Fig.4a
Fig.6  SEM photos of the cross-section morphology of the aluminized layer under different aluminizing time and the point scanning position of the aluminized layer
Time / hSpotElements / %, atom fraction
AlFeCrNi
1164.7720.727.626.90
260.9126.357.904.84
357.0025.6811.435.89
40.6466.2121.0012.14
10163.9622.046.917.08
259.7731.788.390.06
355.1620.3824.170.29
413.2256.3621.459.03
Table 4  Corresponding to the elemental composition scan-ned at each point in Fig.6a, d
Fig.7  Variations of Gibbs energy ΔG with the temperature T for Fe-Al compounds
Fig.8  Schematic diagram of the formation process model of Fe-Al alloy aluminized layer with multilayer phase structure
Fig.9  Relation curve between aluminizing temperature and aluminizing layer thickness
Fig.10  Relation curve between aluminizing time and thickness of aluminized layer
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