Effects of non-isothermal annealing on the microstructure of pure and potassium-doped tungsten sheets

Abstract

Within this study, the effects of non-isothermal annealing procedures, especially different heating rates, were studied for cold rolled pure and potassium doped tungsten sheets. The sheets had a thickness of 0.2 mm. The microstructure was studied via etching of polished cross sections as well as electron backscatter diffraction. The potassium-bubble distribution in the doped tungsten sheets was investigated using scanning electron microscopy. Regarding the microstructure, the doped tungsten sheets presented an elongated, layered microstructure, that was considerably affected by the heating rate. A decrease of the heating rate from 14,400 K/min to 20 K/min resulted in a grain size shift in rolling direction from 70 to 513 μm. On the other hand, pure tungsten sheets showed no significant dependence on the heating rate. Moreover, additional isothermal annealing periods at 2400 °C did generally not affect the microstructure of doped tungsten sheets, which in turn led to a significant increase of the grain size in pure tungsten. This difference was attributed to the grain growth mechanisms, normal grain growth for pure and secondary recrystallization for K-doped tungsten. However, the potassium bubble structure, being responsible for the microstructural differences, was in turn only affected by the maximum annealing temperature. The heating rate differences led to no significant changes in the bubble size distribution. Furthermore, additional isothermal annealing at 2400 °C led to comparably minor changes in the average bubble diameter.