Existing Forms of Lanthanum in Purity Steels

Adding lanthanum to carbon-manganese purity steel, the existing forms of lanthanum were investigated. The results show that enrichment on grain boundary and solid solution in cementite are two kinds of important existing forms of lanthanum relating to micro-alloyed action. As a result of enrichment of lanthanum, the concentration of lanthanum aggregated on somewhere of grain boundary reaches as high as tens of times of its average content although the average content is very low. In addition, lanthanum atoms can replace partial Fe atoms that constitute cementite to form alloyed cementite, the solid solution amount of lanthanum in alloyed cementite increases as the increase of its average content in purity steel.