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M. Weiss, D. Wipp, E. Povoden-Karadeniz, A. Limbeck:
"LA-ICP-MS depth profiling of micro-alloyed steels";
Poster: 20. Tagung Festkörperanalytik - 20th Conference on Solid State Analysis, Wien; 2019-07-01 - 2019-07-03; in: "Abstracts", (2019).

A strong interest in micro-alloyed steel has emerged in the last decades because of increasing cost and scarcity for most alloying elements. Especially, the characterization and control of elemental concentration gradients, segregation to interfaces, and precipitation behaviour in micro-alloyed steel is crucial for the improvement of the mechanical properties. However, analysis of light elements, in the order of parts-per-million (ppm) in micro-alloyed steel still presents tremendous challenges.
In this contribution we present an approach based on Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to quantitively investigate the distribution of minor and trace elements in a micro-alloyed steel. The high sensitivity, the high linear range covering several orders of magnitude and the ease of measurement, requiring little sample preparation makes LA-ICP-MS an ideal approach for this task. Cylinders made of micro-alloy steel with a nominal boron content of 30 ppm were investigated. For a coarse overview LA-ICP-MS mapping were done on cross sections of the samples. For a higher lateral resolution depth profiles were recorded. The signals were quantified using matrix matched standards.
The results show a heterogenous distribution of boron and several other alloy elements throughout the cross section. The elements can be put into two groups, depending on their concentration profile. The bulk concentrations are in accordance with the reference values. The results help to understand segregation and precipitation and give a basis for further investigations, including 3D-Atom Probe measurements.

LA-ICP-MS, depth profile analysis, micro-alloyed steel

Project Head Erwin Povoden-Karadeniz:
CDL-IPE