• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.9
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• pp.659-667
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• 2012

Alloy 617 is a Ni-base superalloy and a candidate material for the intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) of a very high temperature gas reactor (VHTR) which is one of the next generation nuclear reactors under development. The high operating temperature of VHTR enables various applications such as mass production of hydrogen with high energy efficiency. Alloy 617 has good creep resistance and phase stability at high temperatures in an air environment. However, it was reported that the mechanical properties decreased at a high temperature in an impure helium environment. In this study, high-temperature corrosion tests were carried out at $850^{\circ}C-950^{\circ}C$ in a helium environment containing the impurity gases $H_2$, CO, and $CH_4$, in order to examine the corrosion behavior of Alloy 617. Until 250 h, Alloy 617 specimens showed a parabolic oxidation behavior at all temperatures. The activation energy for oxidation in helium environment was 154 kJ/mol. The SEM and EDS results elucidated a Cr-rich surface oxide layer, Al-rich internal oxides and depletion of grain boundary carbides. The thickness and depths of degraded layers also showed a parabolic relationship with time. A normal grain growth was observed in the Cr-rich surface oxide layer. When corrosion tests were conducted in a pure helium environment, the oxidation was suppressed drastically. It was elucidated that minor impurity gases in the helium would have detrimental effects on the high-temperature corrosion behavior of Alloy 617 for the VHTR application.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.209-216
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• 2009

It was evaluated that the microstructural and mechanical properties of Ta-bearing 9Cr-0.5Mo-2W ferritic/martensitic experimental steels. All the experimental steels showed the tempered martensitic microstructures, and $M_{23}C_6$ carbides, whose sizes were ranged from 200 to 300 nm, were easily observed at both boundaries of the prior austenite grain and the martensite lath. In addition, a relatively large Nb-rich MX carbonitrides were intermittently detected at the prior austenite grain boundaries, whereas a lot of Vrich MX carbonitrides, whose mean diameter was less than 50 nm, were observed randomly at both boundaries. Ta was mainly incorporated into the V-rich MX carbonitrides rather than the Nb-rich ones and their content was spanned from 5 to 20 at.%. Ta contents within the MX precipitates also increased as the content of Ta increased. Because the Ta addition into the steels would be attributed to the precipitation strengthening, solid solution strengthening and lath width reduction, it was shown that the mechanical properties, including hardness, tensile strength and creep rate of the 9%Cr-0.5Mo-2W steels were improved by the increase of Ta content. Especially, 9Cr-0.5Mo-2W-0.3V-0.05Nb-0.14Ta steel was revealed to be relatively excellent in the application for the SFR fuel cladding.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.285-292
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• 2012

Hot ductility behavior of precipitation-hardened low-carbon iron alloys containing 0.02 wt% Ti and 0.05 wt% Nb was characterized by a hot tensile stress test. Carbon (0.05, 0.1, 0.25 wt%) and boron (0.002 wt%) contents were varied to study the effect of precipitates on the high-temperature embrittlement of the alloys in the temperature range of $600{\sim}800^{\circ}C$. Ductility loss was observed at $700^{\circ}C$ for the tested alloys. The cause of the ductility loss was mainly attributed to the carbides and ferrite films formed at the grain boundaries during deformation. Although the carbon content tended to raise the total fraction of Nb (C, N), the precipitates were formed mostly in the grain interior as the precipitation temperature was raised above the deformation temperature by the high carbon content. Hence, carbon in excess suppressed the hot ductility loss. Meanwhile, boron addition improved the hot ductility of the alloys. The improvement is likely due to the boron atoms capturing carbon atoms and thus retarding the carbide formation.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.7
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• pp.2376-2385
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• 2022

Two groups of oxide dispersion-strengthened reduced-activation ferritic/martensitic steels (A and B) were prepared by adding Y, Ti, and Zr into steels through vacuum induction melting to investigate the inclusions, microstructures, mechanical properties of the alloys. Results showed that particles with Y, Ti, and Zr easily formed. Massive, Zr-rich inclusions were found in B steel. Density of micron inclusions in A steel was 1.42 × 10¹⁴ m^-3, and density of nanoparticles was 3.61 × 10¹⁶ m^-3. More and finer MX carbides were found in steel tempered at 650 ℃, and yield strengths (YS) of A and B steel were 714±2 and 664±3.5 MPa. Thermomechanical processing (TMP) retained many dislocations, which improved the mechanical properties. YSs of A and B treated by TMP were 725±3 and 683±4 MPa. The existence of massive Zr-rich inclusions in B steels interrupted the continuity of the matrix and produced microcracks (fracture), which caused a reduction in mechanical properties. The presence of fine prior austenite grain size and inclusions was attributed to the low DBTTs of the A steels; DBTTs of A650 and A700 alloy were -79 and -65 ℃. Tempering temperature reduction and TMP are simple, readily useable methods that can lead to a superior balance of strength and impact toughness in industry applications.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2022

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal carbides/nitrides or "MXenes" belong to a diverse-class of layered compounds, which offer composition- and electric-field-tunable electrical and physical properties. Although the majority of the MXenes, including Ti₃C₂T_x, are metallic, they typically show semiconductor-like behaviour in their percolated thin-film structure; this is also the most common structure used for fundamental studies and prototype device development of MXene. Magnetoconductance studies of thin-film MXenes are central to understanding their electronic transport properties and charge carrier dynamics, and also to evaluate their potential for spin-tronics and magnetoelectronics. Since MXenes are produced through solution processing, it is desirable to develop deposition strategies such as inkjet-printing to enable scale-up production with intricate structures/networks. Here, we systematically investigate the extrinsic negative magnetoconductance of inkjetprinted Ti₃C₂T_x MXene thin-films and report a crossover from weak anti-localization (WAL) to weak localization (WL) near 2.5K. The crossover from WAL to WL is consistent with strong, extrinsic, spin-orbit coupling, a key property for active control of spin currents in spin-orbitronic devices. From WAL/WL magnetoconductance analysis, we estimate that the printed MXene thin-film has a spin orbit coupling field of up to 0.84 T at 1.9 K. Our results and analyses offer a deeper understanding into microscopic charge carrier transport in Ti₃C₂T_x, revealing promising properties for printed, flexible, electronic and spinorbitronic device applications.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.301-311
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• 2021

The conversion of all carbon preforms to dense SiC by liquid infiltration can become a low-cost and reliable method to form SiC-Si composites of complex shape and high density. Reactive sintered silicon carbide (RBSC) is prepared by covering Si powder on top of 0.5-5.0 wt% Y₂O₃-added carbon preforms at 1,450 and 1,500℃ for 2 hours; samples are analyzed to determine densification. Reactive sintering from the Y₂O₃-free carbon preform causes Si to be pushed to one side and cracking defects occur. However, when prepared from the Y₂O₃-added carbon preform, an SiC-Si composite in which Si is homogeneously distributed in the SiC matrix without cracking can be produced. Using the Si + C = SiC reaction, 3C and 6H of SiC, crystalline Si, and Y₂O₃ phases are detected by XRD analysis without the appearance of graphite. As the content of Y₂O₃ in the carbon preform increases, the prepared RBSC accelerates the SiC conversion reaction, increasing the density and decreasing the pores, resulting in densification. The dense RBSC obtained by reaction sintering at 1,500 ℃ for 2 hours from a carbon preform with 2.0 wt% Y₂O₃ added has 0.20 % apparent porosity and 96.9 % relative density.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.61-67
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• 2021

Scraps are a byproduct of the machining process used for transforming titanium ingots into useful mechanical parts. Scraps take two forms, namely, bulky scraps, which are produced by cutting, and chipped scraps, which are produced by milling. Bulky scraps are comparatively easier to recycle because of their small surface area and less oxygen content; as a result, they pose only a small risk of explosion. In contrast, chipped scraps pose a higher risk of explosion, because of which, their recycling is complicated, resulting in most such scraps being discarded. With the aim of avoiding this waste, we proposed a novel process for converting chipped scraps into stable carbide materials. Methods typically applied to reduce particle size and impair the formation of solid solution type phase in the carbide materials were used to improve the mechanical properties of carbides prepared from chipped scraps. Our novel recycling process reduced carbide production costs and improved carbide quality.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.466-473
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• 2022

The effect of Cr and Mo contents on the hydrogen embrittlement of tempered martensitic steels was investigated in this study. After the steels with different Cr and Mo contents were austenitized at 820 ℃ for 90 min, they were tempered at 630 ℃ for 120 min. The steels were composed of fully tempered martensite with a lath-type microstructure, but the characteristics of the carbides were dependent on the Cr and Mo contents. As the Cr and Mo contents increased, the volume fraction of film-like cementite and prior austenite grain size decreased. After hydrogen was introduced into tensile specimens by electrochemical charging, a slow strain-rate test (SSRT) was conducted to investigate hydrogen embrittlement behavior. The SSRT results revealed that the steel with lower Cr or lower Mo content showed relatively poor hydrogen embrittlement resistance. The hydrogen embrittlement resistance of the tempered martensitic steels increased with increasing Mo content, because the reduction in the film-like cementite and prior austenite grain size plays an important role in improving hydrogen embrittlement resistance. The results indicate that controlling the Cr and Mo contents is essential to achieving a tempered martensitic steel with a combination of high strength and excellent hydrogen embrittlement resistance.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2023

We investigated the effect of multiple tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AISI 4340 steel. The austenitized and quenched AISI 4340 steels were tempered at 550, 600, and 650℃ for 1, 2, and 4 h by single-tempering (ST). The multiple tempering was conducted for 4 h by double-tempering (DT, 2 h + 2 h), and quadruple-tempering (QT, 1 h + 1 h + 1 h + 1 h). As tempering temperature increases, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength decrease and elongation increases due to recovery and recrystallization of martensite and coarsening of carbides. At 550℃, as the number of tempering cycles increases, the yield strength and tensile strength decrease at the expense of fracture elongation. At 600 and 650℃, the yield strength and tensile strength increase with increasing the number of tempering cycles while fracture elongation maintains similar values. The multiple tempering at the same tempering time of 4 h improves the modulus of toughness at all tempering temperatures, which is presumed to be due to the change in carbide precipitation behavior by multiple tempering.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 1993

Excellent deep drawability and strain aging rsistance are obtained by the addition of alloying elements such as Ti and Nb which can form carbide and nitride easily into Al killed extra low carbon steel. Recrystallization textures and mechanical properties of the three different extra low carbon steels with B containing Nb only, Ti only, and both Nb and Ti, respectively, along with have been compared. Inverse pole figure shows that (100) and (111) texture intensities of Nb containing steel changed a lot during the annealing treatment and the degree of texture-structural change in the steel containing both Nb and Ti is about the same as that in the Ti-containing 5teel. After annealing the pole figure shows that the {Ill} < 110 > and {112} < 110> textures are the strongest in the cold rolled state and the annealed state, respectively. However, there is little difference in texture structure among the three kinds of steels. There is a tendency that the steel containing both Nb and Ti the grain size of which is the smallest is the highest in hardness. Nb-containing steel is the next and Ti -containing steel is the last in hardness.