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Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble-metal alloys

Nature Materials volume 17, pages 887–893 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Intergranular stress-corrosion cracking (IGSCC) is a form of environmentally induced crack propagation causing premature failure of elemental metals and alloys. It is believed to require the simultaneous presence of tensile stress and corrosion; however, the exact nature of this synergy has eluded experimental identification. For noble metal alloys such as Ag–Au, IGSCC is a consequence of dealloying corrosion, forming a nanoporous gold layer that is believed to have the ability to transmit cracks into grain boundaries in un-dealloyed parent phase via a pure mechanical process. Here using atomic-scale techniques and statistical characterizations for this alloy system, we show that the separate roles of stress and anodic dissolution can be decoupled and that the apparent synergy exists owing to rapid time-dependent morphology changes at the dealloyed layer/parent phase interface. We discuss the applicability of our findings to the IGSCC of important engineering Fe- and Ni-based alloys in critical applications.

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Fig. 1: No-load control samples.
Fig. 2: STEM analysis of an injected grain boundary crack.
Fig. 3: Statistical analysis of grain boundary corrosion penetration and crack injection. N(L) is the number of penetrations/injections of length L.
Fig. 4: Crack injection and IGSCC fracture surfaces.
Fig. 5: NPG/parent phase interfacial region.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

K.S. gratefully acknowledges the support of this work by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES) under award DE-SC0008677. N.B. acknowledges assistance from John Mardinly and Toshihiro Aoki with STEM characterization. D.K.S., M.J.O., N.R.O. and S.M.B. acknowledge separate support from the US DOE BES Materials Science and Engineering Division. Some of the work (APT and FIB) was performed using EMSL, a DOE Office of Science User Facility sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). PNNL is operated by Battelle for the DOE under contract DE-AC05-76RL01830.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA

    N. Badwe, X. Chen, E. K. Karasz, A. Y. Tse & K. Sieradzki

  2. Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

    D. K. Schreiber, M. J. Olszta, N. R. Overman & S. M. Bruemmer

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  1. N. Badwe
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Contributions

N.B. performed the control sample and crack injection experiments, prepared FIB milled samples, participated in the APT characterization and performed the STEM characterization at ASU. X.C. performed the crack injection experiments that resulted in sample fracture and SEM characterization. D.K.S. performed FIB specimen preparation (for APT and STEM) and led APT characterizations. M.J.O. performed STEM characterization, and together with N.R.O. determined the grain boundary misorientation for the sample shown in Fig. 2 of the manuscript. E.K.K., X.C. and A.Y.T. performed the control sample and crack injection experiments and statistical analysis of the data. S.M.B. directed the research team at PNNL and K.S. designed and supervised the research at ASU. All authors contributed to writing and editing this manuscript.

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Correspondence to K. Sieradzki.

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Supplementary Tables: Table 1, Supplementary Figures: Figures 1–15, Supplementary References: 1–14

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Badwe, N., Chen, X., Schreiber, D.K. et al. Decoupling the role of stress and corrosion in the intergranular cracking of noble-metal alloys. Nature Mater 17, 887–893 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0162-x

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