Abstract
By introducing an organometallic polymer, as raw materials, into powder metallurgy, a new material has been developed. In a uniform mixture of Fe-13Cr alloy powder and polycarbosilane (PC) with n-hexane, the Fe-13Cr particles were coated with PC. The product of Fe-13Cr+ 10wt%PC obtained by hot-pressing the mixture was subjected to oxidation test, high-temperature hardness measurement and wear resistance test. The new product was superior in all the properties to the one without PC addition. To search the reason, its structure was observed by transmission electron microscope. Contributing to improvement of the mechanical properties are the grains of CrSi2 and Cr7C3, about 0.1μ in size, dispersed uniformly in the Fe-13Cr+10%PC. Observation by scanning electron microscope, in study of its oxidation resistance, then showed some difference in the formation of oxidation film between Fe-13Cr and Fe-13Cr+10%PC. Thus, it has been evidenced that the new alloy produced by the powder metallurgical technique, using the organometallic polymer and ferrous alloy powders has several outstanding features, with the outlook of many applications in the future.
