Understanding the mechanical properties of vanadium carbides: Nano-indentation measurement and first-principles calculations

Abstract Vanadium carbides (VCs) as reinforced phase effectively improve the mechanical properties of steel and coatings. By means of nano-indentation and first-principles techniques, the mechanical properties of various vanadium carbides were investigated. Our results show that cubic VC in Ni–Cr cast iron possesses a relatively high Vickers hardness (33.3 ± 0.5 GPa) and Young’s modulus (436 ± 8 GPa). Furthermore, the mechanical properties and electronic structure of various vanadium carbides, including V 2 C, V 4 C 3 , V 6 C 5 , and V 8 C 7 , were also studied to reveal the effect of carbon content on the mechanical properties of V–C system.