Production of nanoporous superalloy membranes by load-free coarsening of γ′-precipitates

Nickel-based superalloys are predominantly used as structural materials in high-temperature applications due to their exceptional high-temperature strength based on precipitation hardening by the coherent gamma'-phase. In modern superalloys, the gamma'-phase fraction can amount to 75%, at which gamma'-precipitates align as cubes parallel to the < 0 0 1 > directions of the crystal lattice. At high temperatures and under a mechanical load, e.g. during service in gas turbines, the gamma'-cubes coalesce to gamma'-rafts, generating an interpenetrating microstructure of gamma and gamma'. By extracting one phase of this interpenetrated network, nanoporous superalloy membranes containing channel-like interconnected pores are produced. So far, this can only be achieved by applying simultaneously thermal and mechanical loads during tensile creep deformation. Here, a new production process is presented. Due to internal stresses, load-free aging of single-crystalline superalloys, e.g. CMSX-4, also generates an interpenetrating microstructure of gamma and gamma'. This can be utilized to manufacture nanoporous superalloy membranes in the absence of an external mechanical load. The advantage of this process is its simplicity and the potential to fabricate larger membranes than possible by the costly tensile creep deformation process currently used. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.