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Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of the Reaction between Al-Si Coatings and Steel

[Image: see text] Hot-stamped ultrahigh strength steel components are pivotal to automotive light-weighting. Steel blanks, often coated with an aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) layer to protect them from oxidation and decarburization, are austenitized within a furnace and then simultaneously quenched and fo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhang, Jixi, Daun, Kyle J., Smith, Rodney D. L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2023
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10398698/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37546654
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.3c01938
Descripción
Sumario:[Image: see text] Hot-stamped ultrahigh strength steel components are pivotal to automotive light-weighting. Steel blanks, often coated with an aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) layer to protect them from oxidation and decarburization, are austenitized within a furnace and then simultaneously quenched and formed into shape. The Al-Si coating melts within the furnace and reacts with iron from the steel to yield an intermetallic phase that provides some long-term corrosion protection. During the intermediate liquid phase, some of the coating may transfer to the furnace components, leading to maintenance costs and operational downtime. A detailed understanding of the coating transformation mechanism is needed to avoid such production issues while ensuring that final intermetallic coatings conform to specifications. We introduce cross-sectional Raman microscopic mapping as a method to rapidly elucidate the coating transformation mechanism. Raman spectroscopic fingerprints for relevant intermetallic compounds were determined using synthesized Al-Fe-Si ternary and Al-Fe binary compounds. These fingerprints were used to map the spatial distribution of intermetallic compounds through cross sections of Al-Si-coated 22MnB5 specimens that were heated at temperatures between 570 and 900 °C. These chemical maps show that the intermetallic fraction of the coating does not grow significantly until formation of η (Al(5)Fe(2)) at the steel interface, suggesting that η facilitates extraction of iron from the steel and subsequent diffusion through the coating. Under the heating conditions used here, a series of reactions ultimately lead to a silicon-rich τ(2) (Al(3)FeSi) phase on top of the binary η phase. The technique presented here simplifies structural analysis of intermetallic compounds, which will facilitate prototyping of strategies to optimize hot stamping.