Synchronous optimization of strengths, ductility and corrosion resistances of bulk nanocrystalline 304 stainless steel

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2019.05.073

Abstract

Abstract:

Structural materials usually suffer from several attacks during their service, such as tension, fatigue and corrosion. It is necessary to synchronously improve these properties for their lightweight and long-lifetime, but corrosion resistance and ductility are generally inverse correlation with strength, it is very difficult to simultaneously optimize all three properties. However, bulk nanocrystalline 304 stainless steel (BN-304SS) produced by severe rolling technology possessed the larger yield and ultimate tensile strengths with sufficient elongation (> 40%) during tensile test, the larger saturation stress and longer lifetime during low-cycle fatigue, the enhanced uniform and pitting corrosion resistances during five-day immersion test in 6 mol/L HCl, the lowered stress corrosion cracking (SCC) susceptibility with larger yield (~2.40 GPa) and ultimate tensile (~2.66 GPa) strengths, and enough elongation (> 30%) during stress corrosion in comparison with conventional polycrystalline 304 stainless steel (CP-304SS) counterpart. The uniform and pitting corrosion resistances of fractured BN-304SS were enhanced in comprsion with those of fractured CP-304SS during seven-day immersion test in 1 mol/L HCl. These results demonstrated the strengths, ductility and corrosion resistances of BN-304SS can be simultaneously optimized by severe rolling technology. These improved results of BN-304SS in different disciplines were understood by its valence electron configurations rather than traditional microstructural parameters.

Key words: Stainless steel, Pitting corrosion, Stress corrosion, Tensile properties, Low-cycle fatigue, Severe rolling technology

S.G. Wang, M. Sun, S.Y. Liu, X. Liu, Y.H. Xu, C.B. Gong, K. Long, Z.D. Zhang. Synchronous optimization of strengths, ductility and corrosion resistances of bulk nanocrystalline 304 stainless steel[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2020, 37: 161-172.

Figures/Tables 11

Fig. 1. Specimen dimensions of BN-304SS and CP-304SS (unit: mm) (a-c for stress corrosion, tensile test and low-cycle fatigue test respectively), and the schematic diagram of each part of fractured BN-304SS (d) and CP-304SS (e). The thickness of (a-c) is 2.5?mm.

Fig. 2. Stress-strain curves of BN-304SS and CP-304SS during tensile test, SEM fractographs and corrosion surface morphology of fractured BN-304SS and CP-304SS. (a) the stress-strain curves, (b-c) SEM fractographs of BN-304SS and CP-304SS respectively. (d-e) the corrosion surface images of fractured BN-304SS and CP-304SS after seven-day immersion test in 1?mol/L HCl respectively.

Table 1 Parameters of tensile and slow strain rate tests for BN-304SS and CP-304SS. BN-TS and CP-TS: the tensile tests of BN-304SS and CP-304SS respectively. BN-air and CP-air: the slow strain rate tests of BN-304SS and CP-304SS at air respectively. BN-HCl and CP-HCl: the slow strain rate tests of BN-304SS and CP-304SS in 1?mol/L HCl respectively. UTS: ultimate tensile strength; YS: yield stress, EB and RA: the elongation and reductions of fracture area after tensile tests respectively. ES and RT: elastic strain and rupture time respectively.

	YS (MPa)	UTS (MPa)	RA (%)	EB (%)	ES (%)	RT (h)
BN-TS	735.6	830.7	41.9	41.8	0.32	-
CP- TS	286.6	635.9	67.1	63.2	0.09	-
BN-air	2441.6	2766.4	66.2	42.2	3.0	53.0
CP- air	921.5	2308.4	62.7	78.8	1.1	93.0
BN-HCl	2397.8	2664.2	53.3	30.1	2.9	45.0
CP- HCl	910.58	2073.0	48.0	52.0	1.0	71.5

Fig. 3. XRD (a-b), the volume fraction of martensitic content (c) and the corrosion rate of each part of fractured BN-304SS and CP-304SS during seven-day immersion test in 1?mol/L HCl (d).

Fig. 4. High resolution XPS of Cl-2p on fractured BN-304SS (a) and fractured CP-304SS (b) in 1?mol/L HCl after seven-day immersion test respectively, and on BN-304SS (c) and CP-304SS (d) after five-day immersion test in 6?mol/L HCl respectively.

Fig. 5. Surface images of BN-304SS and CP-304SS after five-day immersion test in 6?mol/L HCl. (a-b) original corroded BN-304SS and subsequent ultrasonic cleaning respectively. (c-d) original corroded CP-304SS and subsequent ultrasonic cleaning respectively.

Fig. 6. Stress-strain curves during slow strain rate test, SEM fractographs of BN-304SS and CP-304SS. (a) the stress-strain curves during slow strain rate tests at air and in 1?mol/L HCl. SEM fractographs of BN-304SS (b) and CP-304SS (c) after slow strain rate test in 1?mol/L HCl respectively. SEM fractographs of BN-304SS (d) and CP-304SS (e) after slow strain rate test at air respectively.

Fig. 7. Low-cycle fatigue properties of BN-304SS and CP-304SS. (a) low-cyclic S-N diagram. (b) Basquin curves. (c-d) the cycle stress amplitude curves for Δεt/2 = 0.2% and 0.4% respectively. (e-f) the hysteresis loops for Δεt/2 = 0.2% and 0.4% respectively.

Fig. 8. SEM fractographs of BN-304SS and CP-304SS after low-cycle fatigue failure for Δεt/2?=?0.6%. (a)-(c) for BN-304SS, (d)-(f) for CP-304SS at different magnifications respectively.

Fig. 9. Valence electron configurations of BN-304SS (a) and CP-304SS (b) characterized by ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy [24]. 4?s valence electrons refer to the hybridized 4?s valence electrons between Fe4?s2 and Ni4?s1, between Ni4?s1 and Cr4?s2, and no hybridized 4?s valence electrons. 4?s-3d (I), 3d-4?s (I) and 3d-3d (I) are the 4?s and 3d valence electrons hybridized with 3d, 4?s and 3d valence electrons in the same atom respectively. 4?s-3d (B) and 3d-4?s (B) refer to the 4?s and 3d valence electrons hybridized with 3d and 4?s valence electrons between different atoms respectively.

Table 2 Weights and binding energies of valence electrons of BN-304SS and CP-304SS. WbBN and WbCP represent the weights of valence electrons of BN-304SS and CP-304SS respectively [24]. EbBN and EbCP denote for the binding energies of valence electrons for BN-304SS and CP-304SS respectively.

	4?s	4?s -3d (B)	4?s-3d (I)	3d-4?s (B)	3d-4?s (I)	3d-3d (I)
WbBN (%)	10.80	18.15	21.09	15.80	21.73	12.44
WbCP (%)	13.47	21.35	23.02	16.56	15.71	9.89
EbCP (eV)	0.26	2.27	4.59	7.07	9.52	11.05
EbBN(eV)	0.58	2.54	4.72	7.17	9.64	11.11

References

[1]	S.H. Kim, H. Kim, N.J. Kim, Nature 518 (2015) 77-79.
[2]	S.H. Jiang, H. Wang, Y. Wu, X.J. Liu, H.H. Chen, M.J. Yao, B. Gault, D. Ponge, D. Raabe, A. Hirata, Nature 544 (2017) 460-464.
[3]	M.J. Duarte, J. Klemm, S.O. Klemm, K.J. Mayrhofer, M. Stratmann, S. Borodin, A.H. Romero, M. Madinehei, D. Crespo, J. Serrano, Science 341 (2013) 372-376.
[4]	Q.S. Pan, H.F. Zhou, Q.H. Lu, H.J. Gao, L. Lu, Nature 551 (2017) 214-217.
[5]	R.K. Gupta, N. Birbilis, Corros. Sci. 92(2015) 1-15.
[6]	G. Wu, K.C. Chan, L.L. Zhu, L.G. Sun, J. Lu, Nature 545 (2017) 80-83.
[7]	Y.H. Zhao, X.Z. Liao, S. Cheng, E. Ma, Y.T. Zhu, Adv. Mater. 18(2006) 2280-2283.
[8]	W.Q. Xu, N. Birbilis, G. Sha, Y. Wang, J.E. Daniels, Y. Xiao, M.A. Ferry, Nat. Mater. 14(2015) 1229-1235.
[9]	Y.J. Wei, Y.Q. Li, L.C. Zhu, Y. Liu, X.Q. Lei, G. Wang, Y.X. Wu, Z.L. Mi, J.B. Liu, H.T. Wang, Nat. Commun. 5(2014) 3580.
[10]	L.F. Liu, Q.Q. Ding, Y. Zhong, J. Zou, J. Wu, Y.L. Chiu, J.X. Li, Z. Zhang, Q. Yu, Z.J. Shen, Mater. Today 21 (2018) 354-361.
[11]	B.B. He, B. Hu, H.W. Yen, G.J. Cheng, Z.K. Wang, H.W. Luo, M.X. Huang, Science 357 (2017) 1029-1032.
[12]	T. Tang, Y. Gao, L. Yao, Y. Li, J. Lu, Mater. Des. 137(2018) 214-225.
[13]	H.L. Chan, H.H. Ruan, A.Y. Chen, J. Lu, Acta Mater. 58(2010) 5086-5096.
[14]	T. Balusamy, T.S.N. Sankara Narayanan, K. Ravichandran, Il S. Park, M.H. Lee, Corros. Sci. 74(2013) 332-344.
[15]	J. Zhou, Z. Sun, P. Kanouté, D. Retraint, Int. J. Fatigue 103 (2017) 309-317.
[16]	C. Punckt, M. Bolscher, H.H. Rotermund, A.S. Mikhailov, L. Organ, N. Budiansky, J.R. Scully, J.L. Hudson, Science 305 (2004) 1133-1136.
[17]	F.U. Renner, A. Stierle, H. Dosch, D.M. Kolb, T.L. Lee, J. Zegenhagen, Nature 439 (2006) 707-710.
[18]	T.H. Ly, J. Zhao, M.O. Cichocka1, L.J. Li, Y.H. Lee, Nat. Commun. 8(2017) 14116.
[19]	S.F. Sun, X.Y. Chen, N. Badwe, K. Sieradzki, Nat. Mater. 14(2015) 894-898.
[20]	F. Kümmel, T. Hausöl, H.W. Höppel, M. Göken, Acta Mater. 120(2016) 150-158.
[21]	Y. Jang, S.S. Kim, Z.S. Han, C.Y. Lim, C.J. Kim, J. Mater. Sci. 41(2006) 4293-4297.
[22]	A. Pineau, A.A. Benzerga, T. Pardoen, Acta Mater. 107(2016) 508-544.
[23]	S.G. Wang, C.B. Shen, K. Long, H.Y. Yang, F.H. Wang, Z.D. Zhang, J. Phys. Chem. B 109 (2005) 2499-2503.
[24]	S.G. Wang, M. Sun, Y.H. Xu, K. Long, Z.D. Zhang, J. Mater. Sci. Technol. 34(2018) 2498-2506.
[25]	S.G. Wang, Y.J. Huang, H.B. Han, M. Sun, K. Long, Z.D. Zhang, J. Electroanal. Chem. 724(2014) 95-102.
[26]	H.X. Zhang, X.D. Wang, R.L. Jia, J. Hou, W.M. Guo, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 8(2013) 1262-1273.
[27]	T. Asabe, M. Rifai, M. Yuasa, H. Miyamoto, Int. J. Corros. 2017 (2017), 2893276.
[28]	T. Bai, K.S. Guan, Mater. Des. 52(2013) 849-860.
[29]	N.N. Li, S.Q. Shi, J.L. Luo, J. Lu, N. Wang, Mater. Res. Lett. 4(2016) 180-184.
[30]	Q.Y. Xie, A.B. Ma, J.H. Jiang, Z.J. Cheng, D. Song, Y.C. Yuan, H. Liu, Metals 7 (2013) 437.
[31]	H. Nakano, S. Oue, S. Taguchi, S. Kobayashi, Z. Horita, Int. J. Corros. 2012 (2012), 543212.
[32]	K. Lu, Science 328 (2010) 319-320.
[33]	Q. Lei, B.P. Ramakrishnan, S.J. Wang, Y.C. Wang, J. Mazumder, A. Misra, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 706 (2017) 115-125.
[34]	M. Sokol, M. Halabi, Y. Mordekovitz, S. Kalabukhov, S. Hayun, N. Frage, Scr. Mater. 139(2017) 159-161.
[35]	K.D. Ralston, N. Birbilis, Corrosion 66 (2010), 075005.
[36]	T. Bai, P. Chen, K.S. Guan, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 561 (2013) 498-506.
[37]	Q.J. Wang, Z.Z. Du, L. Luo, W. Wang, J. Alloys Compd. 526(2012) 39-44.
[38]	Z.J. Zhang, J.C. Pang, Z.F. Zhang, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 666 (2016) 305-313.
[39]	H.T. Wang, N.R. Tao, K. Lu, Acta Mater. 60(2012) 4027-4040.
[40]	F.K. Yan, G.Z. Liu, N.R. Tao, K. Lu, Acta Mater. 60(2012) 1059-1071.
[41]	C.C. Xu, R.F. Xu, W.Z. Ouyang, B.W. Jiang, W.Y. Ng, Chinese J. Chem. Eng. 6(1998) 130-137.
[42]	H. Chen, W.Y. Chu, K. Gao, L.J. Qiao, J. Mater. Sci. Lett. 21(2002) 1337-1338.
[43]	C.C. Xu, G. Hu, Anti-Corrosion Methods Mater. 51(2004) 381-388.
[44]	H. Lu, X. Huang, R.F. Hou, D.Y. Li, Metall. Mater. Trans. A 49 (2018) 2612-2621.
[45]	C.C. Xu, G. Hu, W.Y. Ng, Mater. Sci. 40(2004) 252-259.
[46]	A. Khaliq, J.J. Gallet, F. Bournel, D. Pierucci, H. Tissot, M. Silly, F. Sirotti, F. Rochet, J. Phys. Chem. C 118 (2014) 22499-22508.
[47]	S. Tao, D.Y. Li, Philos. Mag. Lett. 88(2008) 137-144.
[48]	W. Li, D.Y. Li, Appl. Surf. Sci. 240(2005) 388-395.
[49]	O. Beckstein, J.E. Klepeis, G.L.W. Hart, O. Pankratov, Phys. Rev. B 63 (2011) 34112.
[50]	C.Z. Fan, J. Li, L.M. Wang, Sci. Rep. 4(2014) 6786.
[51]	Q.D. Li, G.M. Hua, H. Lu, B. Yu, D.Y. Li, JOM 70 (2018) 1130-1135.
[52]	R. Rahemi, D.Y. Li, Scr. Mater. 99(2015) 41-44.
[53]	G.M. Hua, D.Y. Li, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99(2011), 041907.
[54]	W. Li, Y. Wang, D.Y. Li, Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 201(2004) 2005-2012.
[55]	W. Li, M. Cai, Y. Wang, S. Yu, Scr. Mater. 54(2006) 921-924.
[56]	H. Lu, Z.R. Liu, X.G. Yan, D.Y. Li, L. Parent, H. Tian, Sci. Rep. 6(2016) 24366.