First-principles study on the grain boundary embrittlement of bcc-Fe by Mn segregation

Developing steels with high strength and ductility is needed in order to improve the mechanical reliability and environmental performance of engineering products. The addition of Mn is a key technology for developing next-generation high-strength steels. However, the addition of Mn leads to a serious side effect, grain boundary (GB) embrittlement, which decreases the mechanical toughness of steels. Understanding the mechanism of GB embrittlement due to Mn is an essential process for improving the toughness of steels containing Mn. In this work, in order to reveal the fundamental mechanism of GB embrittlement by Mn, the effect of Mn on the cleavage fracture of bcc-Fe GBs, especially the influence of the difference in the magnetic coupling state between Mn and Fe, is investigated using uniaxial tensile simulations of the bcc-Fe $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}3(111)$ GB with and without Mn segregation using the first-principles density functional theory (DFT). The uniaxial tensile simulations demonstrate that Mn decreases the cleavage-fracture energy of the GB. In particular, the ferromagnetically coupled Mn substantially decreases the cleavage-fracture energy of the GB, promoting cleavage fracture. When ferromagnetically coupled Mn is present in the bcc-Fe GBs, the electrons contributing to the bonds between Mn and the surrounding Fe atoms easily localize to the Mn atom with increasing stress, and the bonding between Mn and the surrounding Fe atoms rapidly weakens, leading to a cleavage fracture of the GBs at a lower stress and strain. This unusual behavior is derived from the stability of the nonbonding Mn as a result of its half-filled d shell. These results show that the local magnetic state in GBs is one of the factors determining the macroscopic mechanical properties of steels containing Mn.