High temperature phase decomposition in TixZryAlzN

Autor: Hans Lind, Robert Pilemalm, Lina Rogström, Ferenc Tasnadi, Naureen Ghafoor, Rikard Forsén, Lars J. S. Johnson, Mats P. Johansson-Jöesaar, Magnus Odén, Igor A. Abrikosov
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2014
Předmět:
Zdroj: AIP Advances, Vol 4, Iss 12, Pp 127147-127147-9 (2014)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2158-3226
DOI: 10.1063/1.4905138
Popis: Through a combination of theoretical and experimental observations we study the high temperature decomposition behavior of c-(TixZryAlzN) alloys. We show that for most concentrations the high formation energy of (ZrAl)N causes a strong tendency for spinodal decomposition between ZrN and AlN while other decompositions tendencies are suppressed. In addition we observe that entropic effects due to configurational disorder favor a formation of a stable Zr-rich (TiZr)N phase with increasing temperature. Our calculations also predict that at high temperatures a Zr rich (TiZrAl)N disordered phase should become more resistant against the spinodal decomposition despite its high and positive formation energy due to the specific topology of the free energy surface at the relevant concentrations. Our experimental observations confirm this prediction by showing strong tendency towards decomposition in a Zr-poor sample while a Zr-rich alloy shows a greatly reduced decomposition rate, which is mostly attributable to binodal decomposition processes. This result highlights the importance of considering the second derivative of the free energy, in addition to its absolute value in predicting decomposition trends of thermodynamically unstable alloys.
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