By employing destabilization heat treatments (HT), it is possible to create microstructures possessing diferent fractions
of carbides, martensite, and austenite, which lead to varying tribological responses in abrasion-resistant high-chromium
white cast irons. In the current work, the destabilization temperature was kept constant at 980 °C, whereas the time was
varied from 0 to 90 min. As a result, the microstructure of the 26 wt% Cr white cast iron had a mixture of M23C6 secondary
carbides (SC), martensite, and a decrease in the amount of retained austenite (RA) with increasing destabilization holding
time. The microstructures as well as their tribological characteristics were evaluated by combining confocal laser scanning
microscopy, SEM, XRD, and EBSD, together with dry-sliding linear reciprocating wear tests. Results show that the volume
fraction of SC were statistically comparable in samples destabilized for 0 and 90 min, although the average size was almost
two-fold in the latter. This had direct implications on the wear properties where a decrease of up to 50% in the wear rate of
destabilized samples compared to the non-treated material was observed. Furthermore, the sample with the lowest increase in
the matrix hardness (~20% higher than non-treated), showed the highest wear resistance. This was attributed to a favourable
distribution of the RA (~10%) and SC volume fraction (~5%), in combination with the harder martensitic matrix. Finally,
the results obtained from this study shed light on the ability to alter the HT parameters to tune the microstructure depending
upon the application prerequisite
