Microstructure, Mechanical, and Tribological Properties of Nb-Doped TiAl Alloys Fabricated via Laser Metal Deposition

TiAl alloys possess excellent properties, such as low density, high specific strength, high elastic modulus, and high-temperature creep resistance, which allows their use to replace Ni-based superalloys in some high-temperature applications. In this work, the traditional TiAl alloy Ti-48Al-2Nb-2Cr (Ti4822) was alloyed with additional Nb and fabricated using laser metal deposition (LMD), and the impacts of this additional Nb on the microstructure and mechanical and tribological properties of the as-fabricated alloys were investigated. The resulting alloys mainly consisted of the γ phase, trace β and α phases. Nb was well distributed throughout the alloys, while Cr segregation resulted in the residual β phase. Increasing the amount of Nb content increased the amount of the γ phase and reduced the amount of the β phase. The alloy Ti4822-2Nb exhibited a room-temperature (RT) fracture strength under a tensile of 568 ± 7.8 MPa, which was nearly 100 MPa higher than that of the Ti4822-1Nb alloy. A further increase in Nb to an additional 4 at.% Nb had little effect on the fracture strength. Both the friction coefficient and the wear rate increased with the increasing Nb content. The wear mechanisms for all samples were abrasive wear with local plastic deformation and oxidative wear, resulting in the formation of metal oxide particles.