Tuning the surface chemistry of Fe-Cr by V doping

Abstract

The reversal of the magnitudes of the bulk and surface chemical-potential differences induces the outburst of Cr on the otherwise pure Fe surface of Fe-Cr alloys. This threshold value for the Cr content is about 10 at. %. It is found that vanadium addition to Fe-Cr shifts the Cr threshold to a substantially lower value suggesting V having a positive effect on the corrosion resistance of low Cr steels. The obtained shift in the Cr threshold is shown to be connected to the change in volume of the alloy.

Magnetic origin of the chemical balance in alloyed Fe–Cr stainless steels: First-principles and Ising model study

“…1) to the corresponding effective chemical potential at the surface of binary Fe-Cr ((µ Fe − µ Cr ) surface ), determined in our earlier work. 2,58,59 In alloys for which the surface energy of the third component X is higher than that of Fe, the surfaces are expected to be covered mainly by Fe atoms. Therefore, in these cases the effective chemical potential µ Fe − µ Cr at the surface can be approximated by that of the binary Fe-Cr alloy and in these alloys the threshold value of bulk Cr corresponds to the onset of the breaking of the pure Fe surface by Cr atoms.…”