2002 Volume 43 Issue 6 Pages 1283-1290
Dependence of frequency of annealing twinning events on annealing temperature and composition, especially boron content, in polycrystalline Ni3Al alloys has been investigated by means of optical and transmission electron microscopy, and also by evaluation of coherent twin boundary energy via counting the wrong atomic bonds across twin boundaries. Microstructural observation found that after homogenization at temperatures from 1000 to 1360°C both binary and boron-doped Ni3Al alloys without prestrain show annealing twins only on the Al-rich side with respect to stoichiometry below 1200°C. Above 1200°C annealing twinning may also take place on the Ni-rich side of stoichiometry in the binary alloy system but no twins were found in the γ+γ′ two-phase field. In contrast to plenty of annealing twins in binary alloys, addition of boron decreases greatly the number of twins. 0.2 at% addition significantly decreases the frequency of twinning events and no twins appear above 1200°C. 0.5 at% boron almost cleans out all the twins from the microstructure. Annealing twinning is supposed to be completed by two processes including sweeping of 1⁄3⟨211⟩ superpartial dislocations on successive (111) planes and simultaneous diffusion of boron atoms into the energetically favorable octahedral interstice that are surrounded by six Ni atoms. Boron acts as a strong obstacle to the movement of the superpartial dislocations and greatly increases difficulty in annealing twinning.
