Solidification of Undercooled (Fe1 -x Co x)79.3B20.7 Alloys

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00291

Acta Metall Sin

2025, Vol. 61

Issue (1): 99-108 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00291

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Solidification of Undercooled (Fe₁_-_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 Alloys

YANG Lin¹, MA Changsong¹, LIU Lianjie¹^,², LI Jinfu¹^,³(

)

1 State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
2 Institute of Materials, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621907, China
3 Shanghai Key Laboratory of Materials Laser Processing and Modification, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

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YANG Lin, MA Changsong, LIU Lianjie, LI Jinfu. Solidification of Undercooled (Fe₁_-_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 Alloys. Acta Metall Sin, 2025, 61(1): 99-108.

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Abstract

M-B (M = Fe, Co, Ni) alloys have garnered significant attention in the automotive, petrochemical, and power electronics industries owing to their excellent corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and high-temperature strength. The service performances of the M-B alloys are closely related to that of borides. Among them, M₂₃B₆ generally exists as a metastable phase. However, the understanding of its formation is limited compared to that of other borides. To reveal the effect of Fe/Co content ratio on the solidification behavior of the Fe-Co-B alloys, particularly the formation of M₂₃B₆ phase, alloys with nominal composition of (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 (x = 0-1) were undercooled using the melt fluxing technique. Consequently, the solidification behaviors were systematically investigated. With the increase in the Co content, the stable eutectic reaction changed from L→α-M + M₂B for x <0.4 to L→α-M + M₃B for x >0.4. Consequently, the two eutectic reactions occurred at the same temperature at x =0.4, and a peritectic reaction L + M₂B→M₃B was observed at x > 0.4. With the increase in the undercooling, the primary phase changes from M₂B and M₂₃B₆ to α-M/M₃B in the alloys with x ≤0.6, and from M₃B, M₂B, and M₂₃B₆ to α-M/M₃B in the alloys with x >0.6. The increase in Co content reduced the critical undercooling for the M₂₃B₆ phase to precipitate primarily and improved its stability, that is, the primary M₂₃B₆ phase decomposed into α-M/M₂B in the following cooling process when the Co content is not excessively high. However, it could sometimes be reserved to room temperature in case of a very large Co content.

Key words: Fe-Co-B alloy undercooling non-equilibrium solidification phase selection

Received: 20 August 2024

ZTFLH:

TG111.4

Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(52231002);National Natural Science Foundation of China(51821001)

Corresponding Authors: LI Jinfu, professor, Tel: (021)54748530, E-mail: jfli@sjtu.edu.cn

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2024.00291 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2025/V61/I1/99

Fig.1 Fe-B and Co-B phase diagrams (a, b), XRD spectra of (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 alloy ingots (c), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve of (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 alloys (d) (Black arrows in Fig.1d represents starting or ending tempera-tures of melting process, T_E,i_/_j represents the temperature of the eutectic reaction whose products are i and j)

Fig.2 OM images of (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 alloy ingots (Inset in Fig.2d shows the higher magnification microstructure)
(a) x = 0 (b) x = 0.2 (c) x = 0.4 (d) x = 0.6 (e) x = 0.8 (f) x = 1.0

Fig.3 Cooling curves (a), XRD spectra (b), and OM images (c-f) of (Fe_0.8Co_0.2)_79.3B_20.7 alloy under different undercoolings (ΔT) (Insets in Figs.3d-f show the higher magnification microstructures, T_L is the liquidus temperature of the alloy, $T E, α ‐ M / M 2 B$ is the temperature of the eutectic reaction L→α-M + M₂B, and $T L, M 23 B 6$ is the melting temperature of M₂₃B₆ phase)
(c) ΔT = 10 K (d) ΔT = 233 K (e) ΔT = 305 K (f) ΔT = 351 K

Fig.4 Cooling curves (a), XRD spectra (b), and OM images (c-f) of (Fe_0.6Co_0.4)_79.3B_20.7 alloy under different undercoolings (Insets in Figs.4c-f are magnified views of the areas indicated by the white rectangles)
(c) ΔT = 44 K (d) ΔT = 162 K (e) ΔT = 326 K (f) ΔT = 369 K

Fig.5 Microstructures of (Fe_0.6Co_0.4)_79.3B_20.7 alloy undercooled by 44 K
(a) SEM image (b) EBSD phase map (c) magnified view of the area marked by the white rectangle in Fig.5b

Fig.6 Cooling curves (a), XRD spectra (b), and microstructures (c-f) of (Fe_0.4Co_0.6)_79.3B_20.7 alloy under different undercoolings (Inset in Fig.6c is EBSD phase distribution map, and the other insets show the higher magnification images)
(c) ΔT = 39 K (d) ΔT = 136 K (e) ΔT = 297 K (f) ΔT = 321 K

Fig.7 Cooling curves (a), XRD spectra (b), and OM images (c-f) of (Fe_0.2Co_0.8)_79.3B_20.7 alloy under different undercoolings (Inset in Fig.7c is EBSD phase distribution map, and the other insets show higher magnification OM images)
(c) ΔT = 20 K (d) ΔT = 126 K (e) ΔT = 255 K (f) ΔT = 340 K

Fig.8 Schematics of (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)-B pseudo-binary phase diagrams (Solid lines represent stable phase diagrams, dashed lines represent metastable phase diagrams, T_E,_i₊_j represents the temperature of the eutectic reaction whose products are i and j)
(a) x = 0.4 (b) x = 0.6

Fig.9 Undercooling ranges for various primary phases to precipitate and their dependences on the Co content in (Fe_{1 -}_x Co _x)_79.3B_20.7 alloys ( $Δ T M 2 B$ , $Δ T M 23 B 6$ , and $Δ T α ‐ M + M 3 B$ represent the critical undercoolings above which M₂B, M₂₃B₆, and α-M/M₃B precipitate as primary phases, respectively)

Fig.10 Schematic of solidification paths for various alloys under different undercoolings

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