2024 IRG-1: The sources and control of interstitial impurities during arc melting of refractory complex concentrated alloys
§Refractory complex concentrated alloy (RCCA) exploration and development has been enabled by plasma arc melting (PAM)
§Sources of interstitial impurities and variations in PAM are not well documented
Key Findings:
§Established understanding of the driving forces for interstitial impurity absorption
§Interstitial impurities in the feedstocks
§Residual gases in the PAM environment
§Temperatures achieved during PAM
§Constituent elements of the RCCAs
§Provided thermodynamic understanding for the segregation of O to GBs and the formation of GB oxides which embrittle the MoNbTaW RCCA.
Calvin Belcher, DiranApelian, Enrique Lavernia
Calvin H. Belcher, Benjamin E. MacDonald, DiranApelian, Enrique J. Lavernia, Progress in Materials Science, May 2023.