Atom-probe- and X-ray Diffraction Analysis of the Composition and Structure of Precipitates Formed on Tempering of Ternary Iron-Carbon-Nitrogen Martensites

摘要

X-ray diffraction analysis showed that both α″-type precipitates (as in Fe-N) and ε/η-type precipitates (as in Fe-C) develop in ternary Fe-C-N martensite upon tempering below 450 K. Atom-probe analysis was used to study the distribution of the interstitial atoms on a local scale. Most of the enriched regions formed after tempering contain both nitrogen and carbon atoms, but in an enriched region one type of interstitial is dominant. The carbon-rich regions contain a significantly larger amount of total interstitial atoms than the nitrogen-rich regions. The total interstitial amounts are close to that in ε/η for the carbon-rich regions and close of that in α″ for the nitrogen-rich regions. This suggests that upon tempering Fe-C-N martensite nitrogen atoms reside preferentially in an α″-type structure and carbon atoms reside preferentially in an ε/η-type structure, but that coprecipitation of nitrogen and carbon atoms occurs to a limited extent as well.