Strength, plasticity, thermal stability and strain rate sensitivity of nanograined nickel with amorphous ceramic grain boundaries

Abstract A large fraction of grain boundaries imparts high strength to nanocrystalline (NC) metals but causes the poor thermal stability of microstructures and a significant reduction of strength with increasing deformation temperature. Stabilizing the microstructure is thus desired. In this work, we self-patterned 1–2 nm thick amorphous ceramic SiOC as grain boundaries in NC Ni with grain size of 13 nm through co-sputtering 75 at.%-Ni and 25 at.%-SiOC, producing Ni-SiOC amorphous ceramic reinforced metals (Ni-SiOC ACRMs) with a core-shell structure. Microscopic characterizations of Ni-SiOC ACRMs before and after 400 °C annealing and after compression deformation confirmed the thermally and mechanically stable core-shell structure. Mechanical properties, such as stress-strain responses and strain rate sensitivity of Ni-SiOC ACRMs over a range of temperatures from room temperature (RT) to 400 °C were measured using in situ micropillar testing in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). We demonstrated that amorphous ceramic SiOC grain boundaries impart a high strength (2.5 GPa at RT and 1.6 GPa at 400 °C), large compressive plasticity (uniform compression strain greater than 35% without shear instability) and thermal stability to Ni-SiOC ACRMs. High strain rate sensitivity (0.015 at RT to 0.042 at 400 °C), small activation volume (about 13b3) and no obvious strain hardening/softening behavior suggest that plastic deformation is accommodated by dislocation slips in Ni grains. Amorphous ceramic grain boundaries act as strong barriers and sinks for impeding and trapping dislocations, strengthening the ACRMs and promoting plastic co-deformation between Ni nanograins and amorphous ceramic grain boundaries; the accumulated dislocations are smeared along the amorphous-crystal interfaces, preventing formation of localized shear bands across multiple nanograins.