Interface Structure of Some Precipitates in Austenitic Stainless Steels
Interphase boundaries often play a dominant role in high-temperature materials properties such as deformation and fracture or radiation damage. A detailed knowledge of the interfacial structure is required to understand the relationship between microstructure and properties. High-resolution TEM observations have been made of the interfacial structure of two carbides (M23C6 and MC) and an intermetallic compound (sigma) in 300 series austenitic stainless steels.Precipitates with well-defined orientation relationships and interface planes were chosen in order that the determined structures would be generally applicable in a range of property-structure correlations.Chromium-rich M23C6 (τ) is a face-centered cubic (fcc) phase with a lattice parameter (ao)τ ∼ 1.06 nm ≈ 2.97(ao)γ which forms with a cube-on-cube orientation relationship with the matrix (γ) and with {111} and {110} interfaces. In order to accommodate the “mismatch” of ∼1% between the matrix and precipitate, interface dislocations with separations of 10—20 nm are expected and have been observed previously.