The role of heat treatment and alloying elements on hydrogen uptake in Aermet 100 ultrahigh-strength steel

•Cyclic voltammetry (CV) is a fast and easy technique to screen H in steels.•The effect of austenite on H absorption in Aermet 100 is shown.•Ni is suggested to be an easy route for H absorption in Aermet 100.

In this research we aim to present a fast and semi-quantitative electrochemical method – based on cyclic voltammetry (CV) – to easily screen the H uptake of materials. We used Aermet 100, an ultrahigh-strength steel, in its as-quenched (martensitic) state and an aged state to investigate the H-desorption properties of different microstructures. The CV-based method clearly shows the influence of the alloying elements, the microstructure and the effect of hydrogen recombination poisons on the H uptake. The experiments indicate that a significant part of the uptake of hydrogen is due to (i) the presence of Ni as an alloying element and (ii) the presence of austenite that forms during the heat treatment.