In-situ observations of the dissolution of carbides in an Fe-Cr-C alloy

In-situ observations of the dissolution of carbides were successfully achieved in the Fe-1.72Cr-2.54C alloy. The dissolution of carbides initiated everywhere at the carbide/matrix interfaces instead of only at the high interfacial curvature areas. The carbide corners generally tended to become rounded in the course of dissolution, but different cases were also observed. For those relatively straight carbide-matrix interfaces, it was noted that in most cases, they tended to roughly remain their original straight profiles in the course of dissolution.