Interaction of boron with crystal defects in B2-ordered FeAl alloys
Abstract
Intermetallic alloys are often doped with boron to suppress their intrinsic room-temperature intergranular brittleness. The commonly admitted mechanism of this effect, i.e. an intergranular segregation of boron, seems not to be the only important feature. In this work, boron interactions with numerous kinds of crystal defects (point defects, dislocations, grain boundaries) are studied in B-doped FeAl (B2) alloys containing 40 at. % Al. The intergranular segregation of boron is first characterized. Both an equilibrium and a non-equilibrium (due to a solute atom/thermal vacancy interaction) segregation mechanisms are identified. Strong tendency of boron to segregate to the dislocations lines is shown by direct measurements by atom probe field ion microscopy (AP FIM). This segregation is shown to induce a local depletion in Al in the vicinity of defects.