Microstructural comparison of effects of hafnium and titanium additions in spark-plasma-sintered Fe-based oxide-dispersion strengthened alloys

Abstract Two oxide dispersion strengthened alloys: 14Cr-0.25Y 2 O 3 -0.22Hf (wt.%) and Fe-14Cr-0.25Y 2 O 3 -0.4Ti (wt.%) were fabricated by mechanical alloying and subsequently consolidated by spark plasma sintering (SPS). Electron backscatter diffraction showed grain sizes in the range 0.5–15 μm in both alloys. Transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy showed a homogeneous distribution of nano-oxides precipitated during SPS. Using high resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and atom probe tomography, several different oxide phases were found in both alloys, but the majority of dispersoids were Y-Hf-O type in Fe-14Cr-0.25Y 2 O 3 -0.22Hf and Y-Ti-O type in Fe-14Cr-0.25Y 2 O 3 -0.4Ti. There were a variety of orientation relationships between the different dispersoids and the ferritic matrix. Both alloys had dispersoid densities of ∼10 23 /m 3 , with average diameters of 4.3 nm and 3.5 nm in the 0.22Hf and 0.4Ti containing alloys, respectively. Per atom added, Hf (0.07 at.%) is suggested to be more potent than Ti (0.46 at.%) in refining the nano-oxides.