The effect of carbide and nitride additions on the heterogeneous nucleation behavior of liquid iron

A systematic study of carbide and nitride additions on the heterogeneous nucleation behavior of supercooled liquid iron was undertaken. It was found that titanium nitride and titanium carbide were very effective in promoting heterogeneous nucleation. These compounds were followed by silicon carbide, zirconium nitride, zirconium carbide, and tungsten carbide in decreasing order of effectiveness. The degree of potency of the nucleation catalysts is explained on the basis of the disregistry between the lattice parameters of the substrate and the nucleating phase. Through the inclusion of planar terms the Turnbull-Vonnegut “linear” disregistry equation was modified to more accurately describe the crystallographic relationship at the interface during heterogeneous nucleation.