Study on the microstructure and anisotropy of (Fe,Cr)₇C₃/Fe surface gradient composite produced by solid reaction process

Abstract

In this paper, (Fe,Cr)₇C₃/Fe surface gradient composite was produced by solid reaction combining in situ reaction, using pure chromium plate and HT300. The chromium carbide particles were synthesized in the HT300 by in situ reaction between the chromium atoms of the chromium plate and the carbon atoms of the HT300. The phase constituent, microstructure, microhardness and modulus of the composite were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and nano-indentation instrument. The anisotropy of (Fe,Cr)₇C₃ is emphatically studied. The results show that the (Fe,Cr)₇C₃, which is directed toward the direction of the matrix has certain preferred orientation characteristics during the in-situ reaction, and the (Fe,Cr)₇C₃ in preferred growth direction has a higher microhardness and elastic modulus than that of the non preferred growth direction.

Keywords:

• In situ reaction
• (FeCr)7C3
• anisotropy
• microhardness
• elastic modulus

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for financial support from the Shaanxi Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project (2019JQ-891), Xi'an Science and Technology Plan Project (2020KJWL01), the Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (20JS133), the National Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students (DC2020022).