Interface engineering enables fast bainitic transformations with minimal alloying

Interface engineering enables fast bainitic transformations with minimal alloying | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Interface engineering enables fast bainitic transformations with minimal alloying Daniel dos Santos Avila, Stefan van Bohemen, Carlos Garcia-Mateo, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8724903/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Fine microstructures in steels are commonly produced by the low-temperature decomposition of austenite. Bainite is one such microstructure, combining high strength and excellent toughness, but its formation kinetics is sluggish. Here, we demonstrate a strategy to accelerate bainite formation by coupling the introduction of prior athermal martensite with selective solute segregation. A fraction of 0.2 prior martensite increases by tenfold the density of interfaces available for bainite nucleation. Moreover, boron is added to suppress the formation of softer, coarser phases at high temperatures by segregating to austenite grain boundaries. Yet, boron does not segregate to the freshly formed martensite/austenite interfaces. This selective segregation facilitates bainite nucleation at martensite/austenite interfaces and reduces transformation time by 66%. The proposed interface engineering strategy overcomes the traditional trade-off between hardenability control and bainite kinetics, enabling the design of compositionally leaner bainitic steels, and provides a general pathway for enhancing phase transformation kinetics in metals. Physical sciences/Materials science/Structural materials/Metals and alloys Physical sciences/Materials science/Theory and computation Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files 260128manuscriptMARTBAINmodelsupmatsubmission.pdf Supplementary information for "Interface engineering enables fast bainitic transformations with minimal alloying" Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8724903","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":594676175,"identity":"026cb970-b5d0-4621-929f-3fb059e746a4","order_by":0,"name":"Daniel dos Santos Avila","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDCCA8wNCPYDBhsgxdh4AL8WRpAWAwg7gSENpKWBeC0MCQyHIYL4dPDdbmz+8HPHHzn59jOGBxJqztutbT8MtKXGJhqXFsk7B9ske88YGBucyTE4kHDsdvK2M4lALcfSchtwaDG4kdjGwNtmkLiBIS3hQALb7WSzA0AtjA2H8Wlp/vgXqGV+/zOgln/nks3OPySopUEaZEvDjeQDBxLbDtiZ3SBgiyTQYdKybcbGBjceA7X0JSeY3QDakoDHL3w3kg9/fNsmJyffn9j84cM3O3uz8+kPH3yoscGpBQMkglUmEKscBOxJUTwKRsEoGAUjAwAAKcdvsaAVKxoAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1977-3463","institution":"Delft University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Daniel","middleName":"dos Santos","lastName":"Avila","suffix":""},{"id":594676176,"identity":"5ffd0535-c7da-431a-944f-fc0d937829c1","order_by":1,"name":"Stefan van Bohemen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Tata Steel Research Development and Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Stefan","middleName":"van","lastName":"Bohemen","suffix":""},{"id":594676177,"identity":"a07df606-3cc1-4561-a31f-0bf4bf68e6b0","order_by":2,"name":"Carlos Garcia-Mateo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Materalia Research Group, Department of Physical Metallurgy, National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM-CSIC)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Carlos","middleName":"","lastName":"Garcia-Mateo","suffix":""},{"id":594676178,"identity":"14c5e5d4-4f7a-4d2e-84d0-934ac3eb7a27","order_by":3,"name":"Thomas Sourmail","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Ascometal Research (CREAS)","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Thomas","middleName":"","lastName":"Sourmail","suffix":""},{"id":594676179,"identity":"2a538773-4cb3-4268-82c7-11a995260ffd","order_by":4,"name":"Yan Ma","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1206-7822","institution":"Delft University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yan","middleName":"","lastName":"Ma","suffix":""},{"id":594676180,"identity":"94ec6496-87be-4ffd-ad1f-880699046bb9","order_by":5,"name":"S. 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