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The microstructural evolution and deformation mechanisms of 316L stainless steel (SS) have been investigated at 297, 173, 50 and 15 K by in situ neutron diffraction during tensile loading and correlative transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of 316L stainless steel are significantly improved at cryogenic temperatures. In contrast to room temperature, deformation-induced martensitic transformation was observed at all cryogenic temperatures. The γ-austenite (FCC) content decreases and α′-martensite (BCC) increases with increasing strain, a fraction of this γ to α′ transformation is accompanied by the transient appearance of ε-martensite (HCP) as an intermediate phase. The maximum volume fraction of ε-martensite increases with decreasing deformation temperature and reaches 13% for deformation at 15 K. TEM results confirm that γ → ε → α′ and γ → α′ martensitic transformations occur during cryogenic deformation, while mechanical twins were observed only at 173 K. The evolution of lattice strain, phase volume fraction, stacking fault probability (SFP) and stacking fault energy (SFE) were quantified to investigate the correlation between deformation mechanisms and mechanical behaviour of 316L SS as a function of deformation temperature.

Additional file 2 The full list of work staff for the survey.

Additional file 1 More results of the analysis.

Yue Qin, Suning Li, Gan Zhao, et al. Int J Nanomedicine. 2017;12:263–277.Page 266. In the right column the data range “6 to 15 nm” should be “5 to 15 nm”.Page 267. In Figure 1 Notes “wt%” should be “wt‰ in SWNTs powder”.Page 268. In Figure 2 Notes “1 mL per rat” should be “1 mL/kg body weight”.Read the original article.&nbsp