Phosphorus in Sintered Steels: Interaction of Phosphorus with Mo

Phosphorus as an alloy element is quite common in powder metallurgy, the contents industrially used being markedly higher than those present in wrought steels. However, embrittlement effects are reported also for sintered steels, in part depending on the alloy elements present. In this study, the influence of phosphorus addition on the mechanical properties of PM steels alloyed with Mo, as the most common VI group element in sintered steels, was investigated. PM steels of the type Fe-x%Mo-0.7%Cy% P were manufactured with varying contents of Mo and P, respectively. It showed that P activates sintering also in these materials and enhances Mo homogenization, but there is in fact a risk of embrittlement in these steels that however strongly depends on the combination of Mo and P in the materials: If a critical level is exceeded, embrittlement is observed. At low Mo contents, higher P concentrations are acceptable and vice versa, but e.g. in a material Fe-1.5%Mo-0.7%C-0.45%P, pronounced intergranular embrittlement occurs, further enhanced by sinter hardening effects. This undesirable phenomenon is more pronounced at higher sintering temperatures and in case of faster heating/cooling; it was observed both in materials prepared from mixed and prealloyed powders, respectively. This typical intergranular failure observed with embrittled specimens, in particular after impact testing, indicates the precipitation of brittle phases at the grain boundaries, apparently when exceeding the solubility product between Mo and P.