Precipitation hardening in a 12%Cr–9%Ni–4%Mo–2%Cu stainless steel Original Research Article

A combination of complementary techniques including one-dimensional and three-dimensional atom probe, energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy and conventional transmission electron microscopy has been used to assess the precipitation reactions at 475 °C in a 12%Cr–9%Ni–4%Mo–2%Cu precipitation hardening stainless steel. The continuous hardening up to at least 1000 h of ageing was attributed to a sequence of precipitation reactions involving nickel-rich precipitates nucleating at copper clusters followed by molybdenum-rich quasicrystalline precipitates and nickel-rich precipitates of type L10. An estimate of the relative contributions to the strength increment during tempering based on measurements of particle densities was performed. Nickel-rich precipitates were found to play the most important role up to about 40 h of ageing after which the effect of quasicrystalline particles became increasingly important.