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As a candidate material for accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) cladding tubes, the intergranular corrosion (IGC) of FeCrAl alloys under nuclear reactor operating conditions is becoming a general concern. Optimizing the grain boundary character distribution (GBCD) through grain boundary engineering (GBE) is the basic approach to improving the IGC resistance of FeCrAl alloys. Due to its intrinsic properties, FeCrAl alloys with a body-centered cubic (BCC) structure are not readily inclined to form singular boundaries (SBs), such as coherent twin boundaries that are 'immune' to corrosion attacks, during microstructural reconstruction processes like deformation and recrystallization. It has become the focus of GBE research of nuclear FeCrAl alloy to understand the formation law of {0 1 1}/{0 1 1} near singular boundaries (NSBs) with better corrosion resistance than random boundaries (RBs), and to try to increase their proportion. The present study choses nuclear-grade Fe-12.5wt.%Cr-4.0wt.%Al alloy, which has undergone solution treatment and microstructure randomization, as the experimental material. Using a quantitative grain boundary inter-connection (GBIC) characterization method based on electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and five-parameter analysis (FPA), the GBCD of five parallel samples was systematically investigated. These samples were subjected to 70 % rolling deformation (thickness reduction) at different temperatures ranging from 550 °C to 835 °C, followed by recrystallization annealing at 900 °C for 5 min. The results indicate that the proportion of {0 1 1}/{0 1 1}-NSBs in the five samples first increases and then decreases with the rise in rolling temperature before recrystallization annealing. The sample rolled at 735 °C and recrystallized at 900 °C exhibits the highest proportion of {0 1 1}/{0 1 1}-NSBs, reaching a maximum value of 7.41 %. Microstructural observations and overlapped pole fig. GB trace analysis indicate a correlation between the recrystallization texture and the proportion of {0 1 1}/{0 1 1}-NSBs. This is reflected in the frequent presence of 〈0 1 1〉/θ misorientation relationships between grains with 〈0 1 1〉//ND orientation and grains with other orientations, and a higher occurrence of {0 1 1}/{0 1 1}-NSBs in the associated GBs. High angle annular dark field observations via scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM-HAADF) and crystallographic analysis reveal that {0 1 1}/{0 1 1}-NSBs in FeCrAl alloys exhibit periodic well-matched atomic regions and periodic structural units (SUs). The degree of order of atomic arrangement in these boundaries is significantly higher than that in RBs, which is the main reason for their superior corrosion resistance compared to RBs. © 2025 Elsevier Inc.
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Materials Characterization
ISSN: 1044-5803
Year: 2025
Volume: 221
4 . 8 0 0
JCR@2023
CAS Journal Grade:2
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ESI Highly Cited Papers on the List: 0 Unfold All
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30 Days PV: 0
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