Nano-particle precipitation in mechanically alloyed and annealed precursor powders of legacy PM2000 ODS alloy

The early stages of nano-particulate formation in mechanically alloyed and annealed, precursor powders used to manufacture the legacy commercial oxide dispersion strengthened alloy PM2000, formerly produced by Plansee GmbH, have been investigated. Powders were analysed in both the as-mechanically-alloyed condition and after annealing over the temperature range 923-1423 K. The nucleation and growth of coherent nano-particles in the partially recovered, fine grained, ferritic matrix of powders annealed at temperatures as low as 923 K has been confirmed. Powders annealed for 1 h at temperatures of 1123 K and 1223 K were partially recrystallised and contained high number densities (N-v > 10(23) m(-3)) of coherent 2 nm yttrium-aluminium-oxygen rich nano-particles. The identification of particle free zones in recrystallised grains, adjacent to recrystallising interfaces, plus the identical orientation relationships between nano-particles and the matrices in both unrecrystallised and recrystallised grains, indicates that the Y-Al-O nano-particles, first formed in fine grained regions, are dissolved during recrystallisation and re-precipitated subsequently in recrystallised grains. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.