Tailoring Grain Boundary and Resultant Plasticity of Pure Iron by Pulsed-Electric-Current Treatment

Abstract

In general, annealing twins (R3 boundaries) are induced in face-centered cubic metals by thermal-mechanical processes. We report on the R3 boundary-induced plasticity enhancement of pure iron treated by a pulsed electric current subject to its allotropic transformation of a fi c fi a. The behavior is attributed to an increased amount of R3 boundaries with the grain-boundary interconnection evolution from {112}/{112} to {110}/{110} resulting from the increasing pulsed-electric-current intensity. The results provide an alternative pathway to fabricate high-performance metallic materials by tailoring special grain boundaries.

Application of Electric Current‐Assisted Sintering Techniques for the Processing of Advanced Materials

“…This approach is especially attractive for high strength structural and—in the case of titanium alloys—for biomedical applications . From a scientific point of view, the highly accurate control of all process parameters enables to study densification mechanisms in the presence of electric fields and identify main processing factors required for tuning grain boundaries, texture, porosity, and other functional properties. For a more detailed discussion of the big potential of FAST/SPS techniques for material synthesis and microstructure tuning, we refer to excellent textbooks summarizing the current state of the art…”