Application of analytical electron microscopy to the study of partitioning of silicon in a 2 wt% Si eutectoid steel

The application of the technique of analytical electron microscopy to the study of partitioning of Mn (1) and Cr (2) during the austenite-pearlite transformation in eutectoid steels has been described in previous papers. In both of these investigations, ‘in-situ’ analyses of individual cementite and ferrite plates in thin foils showed that the alloying elements partitioned preferentially to cementite at the transformation front at higher reaction temperatures. At lower temperatures partitioning did not occur and it was possible to identify a ‘no-partition’ temperature for each of the steels examined. In the present work partitioning during the pearlite transformation has been studied in a eutectoid steel containing 1.95 wt% Si. Measurements of pearlite interlamellar spacings showed, however, that except at the highest reaction temperatures the spacing would be too small to make the in-situ analysis of individual cementite plates possible, without interference from adjacent ferrite lamellae. The minimum diameter of the analysis probe on the instrument used, an EMMA-4 analytical electron microscope, was approximately 100 nm.