Solute Segregation During Ferrite Growth: Solute/Interphase and Substitutional/Interstitial Interactions

The segregation of solutes to austenite/ferrite transformation interfaces during decarburization/denitriding of Fe-Mn-C, Fe-Mn-N, and Fe-Si-C ternary alloys was studied by using atom probe tomography. Manganese was found to segregate noticeably to the transformation interface in the presence of carbon, while no segregation could be detected in the presence of nitrogen. This result might indicate that manganese interacts little with the interface itself and that its interaction with the interstitial controls its segregation behavior. In the case of Fe-Si-C, the experiments were complicated by interface motion during quenching. Preliminary results suggest that silicon was depleted at the interface in contrast to the commonly observed segregation behavior of silicon at grain boundaries of ferrite and austenite. This observation could be explained by taking into account the repulsive interaction between silicon and carbon along with the intense segregation of carbon to the interface. This would lead to a net repulsive interaction of silicon with the interface even when considering the intrinsic tendency of silicon to segregate to the boundary in the absence of carbon. The results presented here emphasize the need to account for the interaction of all solutes present at the interface in ferrite growth models.