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Phase Equilibria in the Ternary Nb-Cr-Al System and Site Occupation in the Hexagonal C14 Laves Phase Nb(AlxCr1-x)2
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Abstract
The ternary Nb-Cr-Al phase diagram exhibits extended phase fields of the cubic C15 and the hexagonal C14 Laves phases Nb(AlxCr1-x)2. A number of Nb-Cr-Al alloys were prepared by levitation melting and annealed at temperatures between 1150 and 1450 °C for up to 1500 h. Isothermal sections of the ternary Nb-Cr-Al phase diagram at 1150, 1300 and 1450 °C were obtained from electron probe microanalysis, X-ray powder diffraction and metallographic investigations in order to study the effect of Al on the stability and structure of the Laves phases. The C14 Laves phase in the Nb-Cr-Al system can dissolve up to 45 at.% Al by substituting Cr with Al on the two different crystallographic B-sites 2a and 6h of the C14 AB2 unit cell. The site occupations of the Al and Cr atoms on these two B-sites were determined by Rietveld analysis using the program FullProf. The experimental site occupation factors were compared to site occupation factors computed by a statistical mechanics approach based on first-principles electronic structure calculations. The experimental as well as the calculated site occupation factors indicate a preferred occupation of the 2a site by Al.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009
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