Diffusivity and Solubility of Cu in a Reactor Pressure Vessel Steel Studied by Atom Probe Tomography

Abstract

This paper has been retracted from Mater. Trans. by the authors' request due to the following reason.The authors found that the eq. (1) in 3. Results and Discussion had an error, resulting in the different values of the estimated diffusion coefficients and solubility limits.The equation (1) should have been corrected by taking the nominal Cu concentration of the studied A533B steel, c A533B , into account.Accordingly the estimated values of diffusion coefficients and solubility limits were to be corrected, then the Figs. 24 were also to be corrected.The authors' apology for their honest error and the revision for improvement of the paper were accepted by the Editorial Committee.The revised paper is published in Mater. Trans. 56 (2015) 15131516 after regular peer-reviewing by the Editorial Committee.Materials Transactions, Vol. 56, No. 9 (2015) The diffusivity and solubility limit of Cu in A533B steel, which is used in reactor pressure vessels, were studied by atom probe tomography (APT). Cu-A533B steel diffusion couples were annealed at temperatures of 550, 600, and 700°C, and the resulting Cu concentration profiles were measured. For all annealing temperatures, the diffusivity of Cu in A533B steel were found to be 23 times higher than that in pure Fe, although the solubility limit of Cu was similar. APT was also used to study the effect of the grain boundary (GB) diffusion. The results indicated that no Cu segregation occurred at GB near the Cu/A533B steel interface, which may imply that GB diffusion of Cu was not effective in A533B steel.