Effects of tantalum on the temporal evolution of a model Ni–Al–Cr superalloy during phase decomposition

The effects of a 2.0 at.% addition of Ta to a model Ni–10.0Al–8.5Cr (at.%) superalloy aged at 1073 K are assessed using scanning electron microscopy and atom-probe tomography. The γ′(L12)-precipitate morphology that develops as a result of γ-(fcc)matrix phase decomposition is found to evolve from a bimodal distribution of spheroidal precipitates, to {0 0 1}-faceted cuboids and parallelepipeds aligned along the elastically soft 〈0 0 1〉-type directions. The phase compositions and the widths of the γ′-precipitate/γ-matrix heterophase interfaces evolve temporally as the Ni–Al–Cr–Ta alloy undergoes quasi-stationary state coarsening after 1 h of aging. Tantalum is observed to partition preferentially to the γ′-precipitate phase, and suppresses the mobility of Ni in the γ-matrix sufficiently to cause an accumulation of Ni on the γ-matrix side of the γ′/γ interface. Additionally, computational modeling, employing Thermo-Calc, Dictra and PrecipiCalc, is employed to elucidate the kinetic pathways that lead to phase decomposition in this concentrated Ni–Al–Cr–Ta alloy.