Institute of Metals Division - A New High-Temperature Form of the Intermetallic Compound CO3V (TN)

In the course of a study concerned with the rnechanical behavior of the intermetallic compound CO3V, both structural observations and anomalous electrical-resistivity behavior indicated the presence of a new high-temperature phase in an alloy with the stoichiometric composition, Co-22.4 wt pet V. The evidence, which is given below, suggests that the new phase is situated between the low-temperature ordered hexagonal phase, k,1, 2and the high-temperature disordered fee solid solution, a,3 within a small range of temperature in the vicinity of 1070°C. Structural studies included X-ray diffraction analysis* and electron-transmission microscopy examination* of stoichiometric composition speci- mens homogenized for 1 hr at 1200oC and either air-cooled or water-quenched. The air-cooled specimens yielded X-ray diffraction evidence of the k phase, while electron microscopy revealed a microstructure of both heavily and moderately faulted regions as shown in Fig. 1. The high density of stacking faults (or fine twins) in region A is reminiscent of hexagonal cobalt following its allotropic transformation.4 Selected-area diffraction from this region revealed distinct superlattice reflections of the ordered hexagonal phase, as well as continuous rel-streaks which were normal to the fault planes in the micrograph. The latter is indicative of extremely small spacings between the faults.' Regions such as ß were found to be only partially transformed to the k phase. Attempts to study the antiphase domain structure by either bright- or dark-field techniques were unsuccessful in these initial studies. This was due to the low intensity of the superlattice reflections arising from the closeness of the cobalt and vanadium scattering factors. Quenching Co3V from above Tc appears to suppress the formation of the k phase. Both X-ray and electron-diffraction results indicated that the disordered phase, a, was partially ordered during severe cooling and that the structure of the ordered phase was of the L12 (Cu3Au) type,6 designated here as a'. As in the case of the hexagonal phase, examination of the domain structure was unsuccessful; however, significant information concerning the morphology of this condition was revealed by the appearance of dislocation arrays. In particular, it