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Formation mechanism and stability of the phase in the interface of tungsten carbide particles reinforced iron matrix composites: First principles calculations and experiments

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Abstract

To study the formation mechanism and stability of the phase in the interface of tungsten carbide particles reinforced iron matrix composites, the composites were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique and combined with first-principles calculation. It was found that Fe3W3C compound was stable from the perspective of both thermodynamics and mechanical properties based on our calculations. Interfacial reaction product of tungsten carbide particles reinforced iron matrix composites was M6C. Experimental results indicated that the samples prepared by SPS did not appear interfacial reaction zone, while, interfacial reaction zone appeared for the remelted samples. With the increasing remelting temperature, the width of the interface reaction zone increased because the mutual diffusion occurred at the interface between tungsten carbide particles and matrix. Its formation mechanism was 3Fe + 3/2W2C → Fe3W3C + 1/2C. Our research might provide a theoretical guidance in controlling the interface of tungsten carbide particles reinforced iron matrix composites.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos: 51361019 and 51561018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, People’s Republic of China

    Zulai Li, He Wei, Quan Shan, Yehua Jiang & Rong Zhou

  2. School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Jing Feng

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  1. Zulai Li
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  2. He Wei
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  3. Quan Shan
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  4. Yehua Jiang
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Correspondence to Zulai Li.

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Li, Z., Wei, H., Shan, Q. et al. Formation mechanism and stability of the phase in the interface of tungsten carbide particles reinforced iron matrix composites: First principles calculations and experiments. Journal of Materials Research 31, 2376–2383 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.268

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