Microstructure Evolution, Tribological and Corrosion Properties of Amorphous Alloy Strengthening Stainless Steel Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting in NaCl Solution

doi:10.1007/s40195-024-01665-5

Abstract

Abstract:

As a type of austenitic stainless steel, 316L stainless steel has excellent plasticity, corrosion resistance, and biocompatibility, making it widely used in industries, especially in the marine environments. However, its lower yield strength and wear resistance are the obvious disadvantages that restrict its application in more fields. In this work, an Fe-based amorphous alloy (Fe^am) was selected as reinforcement to enhance the 316L stainless steel prepared by selective laser melting (SLM), and microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, tribological and corrosion performance of the SLMed samples were investigated in detail. The relative density values of both 316L stainless steel and Fe^am-reinforced samples are above 99%, which suggests that Fe^am-reinforced samples also have outstanding formability. In the as-etched micrograph, all of the SLMed samples exhibit cellular structure. Fe^am-reinforced samples have thicker sub-grain boundaries, and retained amorphous phase can be observed in the samples reinforced with 10 wt% and 15 wt% Fe^am. As the addition of Fe^am increases, the microhardness and compression strength of the Fe^am-reinforced samples gradually improve and reach 449.2 HV and 2181.9 MPa, respectively. The wear morphologies show that the 316L stainless steel and Fe^am-reinforced samples both experience abrasive wear and corrosion wear in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution. Meanwhile, as the amount of Fe^am added increases, the coefficient of friction and wear rate of SLMed samples gradually decrease. Compared to the unreinforced sample, Fe^am-reinforced samples have lower corrosion current density and higher pitting potential according to the potentiodynamic polarization curves and also exhibit superior corrosion resistance in the salt spray environment. This work suggests that the addition of Fe-based amorphous alloy can improve the mechanical properties and wear resistance of 316L stainless steel, as well as its ability to withstand salt spray corrosion.

Key words: Selective laser melting, 316L stainless steel, Amorphous alloy, Tribology, Corrosion

Pengwei Jiang, Gang Wang, Yaosha Wu, Zhigang Zheng, Zhaoguo Qiu, Tongchun Kuang, Jibo Huang, Dechang Zeng. Microstructure Evolution, Tribological and Corrosion Properties of Amorphous Alloy Strengthening Stainless Steel Fabricated by Selective Laser Melting in NaCl Solution[J]. Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters), 2024, 37(5): 825-839.

Figures/Tables 20

Table 1 Nominal chemical compositions of 316L stainless steel and Fe-based amorphous alloy powders used in this work (wt%)

Powder	Cr	Ni	Mo	Mn	C	B	Si	Fe
316L	17.0	12.5	2.6	≤ 2	≤ 0.1	-	≤ 0.1	Bal.
Fe^am	25.8	-	16.8	-	2.44	2.08	0.35	Bal.

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of a scanning strategy of SLM process and b tribological test in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for SLMed samples

Fig. 2 OM images of SLMed samples: a-d the horizontal cross-sections of S0, S5, S10 and S15 samples after polishing; a1-d1 the vertical cross-sections of S0, S5, S10 and S15 samples after etching; a2-d2 the horizontal cross-sections of S0, S5, S10 and S15 samples after etching

Fig. 3 Relative density values of SLMed samples

Fig. 4 XRD patterns of the SLMed samples and Feam powder

Fig. 5 SEM images of the SLMed 316L stainless steel and Feam-reinforced samples: a, b S0, c, d S5, e, f S10, g, h S15

Table 2 EDS results for the points in Fig. 5 (wt%)

Point	Cr	Mo	C	Si	Fe
A	24.22	16.41	2.80	0.60	Bal.
B	25.77	16.38	2.99	0.99	Bal.

Fig. 6 a Microhardness and b engineering stress-strain curves during compression process of SLMed samples

Table 3 Compression properties and microhardness of SLMed samples

Sample	σ_s (MPa)	σ_u (MPa)	ε_u (%)	Microhardness (HV)
S0	507.5 ± 6.2	1042.5 ± 24.8	46.0 ± 0.9	230.2 ± 6.4
S5	720.3 ± 29.1	1411.1 ± 22.0	39.6 ± 1.3	332.8 ± 15.8
S10	1192.1 ± 55.7	2181.9 ± 42.4	36.4 ± 0.7	423.2 ± 20.0
S15	1418.6 ± 35.1	1986.0 ± 37.8	35.5 ± 0.7	449.2 ± 13.3

Fig. 7 Evolution of COFs for SLMed samples under a load of 20 N in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution

Table 4 COFs of SLMed samples under a load of 20 N in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution

Sample	S0	S5	S10	S15
COF	0.652 ± 0.014	0.590 ± 0.014	0.552 ± 0.013	0.501 ± 0.006

Fig. 8 a Section profiles of the wear tracks obtained from 3D profilometer analysis, b specific wear rate of the SLMed samples

Fig. 9 Low-magnification and high-magnification images about wear tracks of the SLMed samples: a, b S0, c, d S5, e, f S10, g, h S15

Table 5 EDS results for the points in Fig. 9 (wt%)

Point	O	Si	Cl	Cr	Ni	Mo	Mn	Fe
A	2.25	0.85	0	16.97	11.67	2.58	0.63	65.05
B	13.41	3.18	0.96	18.26	10.42	3.03	0.61	50.31
C	1.60	0.53	0	17.79	10.38	3.24	0.70	65.76
D	11.37	4.04	1.33	16.59	9.38	2.33	0.80	54.16
E	9.87	3.64	1.23	17.35	8.19	4.05	0.73	54.94
F	0.86	0.40	0	17.86	9.64	4.24	0.44	66.56
G	0.99	0.71	0	17.27	9.81	4.32	0.24	66.66
H	6.12	1.10	0.30	19.00	8.53	3.59	0.51	60.85

Fig. 10 Potentiodynamic polarization curves of SLMed samples in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution at room temperature

Table 6 Ecorr, Icorr and Epit of SLMed samples

Sample	E_corr (mV)	I_corr (10^-7 A cm⁻²)	E_pit (mV)
S0	− 252.03	6.15	406.19
S5	− 258.56	5.03	539.25
S10	− 263.05	2.09	1007.38
S15	− 267.26	1.19	1081.23

Fig. 11 SEM morphologies of a S0 sample and b S15 sample after electrochemical tests

Fig. 12 Surface morphologies and EDS images about Fe, O, Cr elements of the SLMed samples after 240-h salt-spray corrosion: a S0, b S5, c S10, d S15

Fig. 13 Surface morphologies of Fig. 12 at higher magnification by SEM: a S0 sample, b S5 sample

Table 7 Oxygen content at various points in Fig. 13 (at.%)

Point	A	B	C	D
O	0	43.5	1.0	3.5

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