Inhibited aluminization of an ODS FeCr alloy

Aurélie Rouaix-Vande Put (1) , B.A. Pint (2)

1 CIRIMAT - Centre interuniversitaire de recherche et d'ingenierie des matériaux
2 ORNL - Oak Ridge National Laboratory [Oak Ridge]

Aluminide coatings are of interest for fusion energy applications both for compatibility with liquid Pb-Li and to form an alumina layer that acts as a tritium permeation barrier. Oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) ferritic steels are a structural material candidate for commercial reactor concepts expected to operate above 600 °C. Aluminizing was conducted in a laboratory scale chemical vapor deposition reactor using accepted conditions for coating Fe- and Ni base alloys. However, the measured mass gains on the current batch of ODS Fe-14Cr were extremely low compared to other conventional and ODS alloys. After aluminizing at two different Al activities at 900 °C and at 1100 °C, characterization showed that the ODS Fe-14Cr specimens formed a dense, primarily AlN layer that prevented Al uptake. This alloy batch contained a higher (> 5000 ppma) N content than the other alloys coated and this is the most likely reason for the inhibited aluminization. Other factors such as the high O content, small (~ 140 nm) grain size and Y-Ti oxide nano-clusters in ODS Fe-14Cr also could have contributed to the observed behavior. Examples of typical aluminide coatings formed on conventional and ODS Fe- and Ni-base alloys are shown for comparison.

Mots clés: Chemical vapor deposition; Aluminide coatings; ODS alloys; Ferritic steels; Fusion energy

Domaines: Matériaux; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Aurélie Rouaix-Vande Put, B.A. Pint. Inhibited aluminization of an ODS FeCr alloy. Surface and Coatings Technology, 2012, vol. 206, pp. 5036-5041. ⟨10.1016/j.surfcoat.2012.05.041⟩. ⟨hal-00865729⟩