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Title: Understanding the mechanism of hardness enhancement in tantalum-substituted tungsten monoboride solid solutions

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5054616· OSTI ID:1581332
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Virginia Commonwealth Univ., Richmond, VA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
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The differential strain behavior of TaxW1-xB solid solutions has been studied as a function of composition using high-pressure radial X-ray diffraction in a diamond-anvil cell under non-hydrostatic pressure (up to ~65 GPa) to understand the hardening mechanisms in this family of materials. The hardness of tungsten monoboride (WB) can be increased by adding tantalum and reaches a maximum at a doping level of 50 at. % with a value of 42.8 ± 2.6 GPa under an applied load of 0.49 N. Plateaus were observed in the differential strain data for both the (020) and (002) directions, suggesting that this is the primary slip system in this material. These plateaus were modified by the addition of Ta, indicating that strengthening of the (002) and (020) planes by solid solution hardening was primarily responsible for the hardness enhancements in TaxW1-xB solid solutions. In contrast, the differential strain supported by the (200) plane linearly increases with pressure up to the highest pressures reached in this work (>60 GPa) and shows almost no change with metal composition. Because of the very different compression behavior in the (200) and (020) planes, change in the b/a ratio with pressure provides a unique way to visualize the onset of plastic behavior. This onset varies from ~15 GPa for samples with 5% Ta to more than 30 GPa for the sample with 50% Ta. Finally, the ambient bulk modulus of each solid-solution sample was determined using the second-order Birch-Murnaghan equation-of-state and found to be ~340 GPa for all phases.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1506860; EAR 1606856
OSTI ID:
1581332
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 125, Issue 8; ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Radial X‐Ray Diffraction Study of Superhard Early Transition Metal Dodecaborides under High Pressure journal April 2019
Revealing the Unusual Rigid Boron Chain Substructure in Hard and Superconductive Tantalum Monoboride journal March 2019
Lattice strain and texture analysis of superhard Mo 0.9 W 1.1 BC and ReWC 0.8 via diamond anvil cell deformation journal January 2019

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