Structure and Properties of High-Hardness Silicide Coatings on Cemented Carbides for High Temperature Applications

Cemented tungsten carbides (cWCs) are routinely used in mining and manufacturing but are also candidate materials for compact radiation shielding in fusion power generation. In both applications, there is a need for oxidation to be minimized at operating temperatures. In a recent study, Si-based coatings deposited by pack cementation were demonstrated to improve the oxidation resistance of cWCs by up to a factor of 1000. In this work, these coatings are further characterized, with the focus on growth kinetics, phase composition, and hardness. By combining quantitative X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and instrumented micro-indentation, it is shown that the coating layer has a 20% higher hardness than the substrate, which is explained by the presence of a previously-unknown distribution of very hard SiC laths. To interpret the coating stability, a coating growth map is developed. The map shows that the structure is stable under a broad range of processing temperatures and cWC compositions, demonstrating the wide-ranging applicability of these coatings.