Issue 29, 2017

Probing the balance between ductility and strength: transition metal silicides

Abstract

The adjustment of the balance between strength and ductility is still a great challenge for ultrahigh temperature materials. Essentially, the strength depends on the valence electron density of transition metals and the bond strength of chemical bonding. However, the ductility of a solid is mainly determined by the symmetrical slips and crystal structure. Based on the above design principles, we apply first-principles calculations to investigate the structure, elastic properties and brittle-or-ductile behavior of TM3Sis with a cubic structure. Two new TM3Si structures: Ti3Si and W3Si (space group: Pm[3 with combining macron]n) are predicted. The calculated results show that W3Si exhibits strong volume deformation and shear deformation resistances in comparison to TM5Si3. In particular, W3Si also exhibits excellent ductility due to the symmetrical structure. The calculated electronic structure reveals that a high elastic modulus derives from the strong and symmetrical W–Si and W–W bonds. Therefore, we can control a crystal structure with symmetrical slips and choose a TM metal with a high valence electron density, to improve the correlation between ductility and strength.

Graphical abstract: Probing the balance between ductility and strength: transition metal silicides

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 May 2017
Accepted
29 Jun 2017
First published
29 Jun 2017

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017,19, 19427-19433

Probing the balance between ductility and strength: transition metal silicides

Y. Pan and W. M. Guan, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 19427 DOI: 10.1039/C7CP03182C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements