Effect of electropulsing on the formation of graphite during solid-state graphitization of spherical graphite iron

Based on the reduction of nucleation energy barrier, the diffusion acceleration of the carbon atom, and the increase of graphite nucleation sites by pulse current, the mechanism of the graphite formation has been investigated during the accelerated solid-state graphitization of the spherical graphite iron by electropulsing. The pulse current with different parameters has been applied at room-temperature and high temperature and compared to their corresponding normal high temperature graphitization with the same heating process. The experimental result indicates that the formation of graphite is accelerated by electropulsing during solid-state graphitization of the spherical graphite iron and a large quantity of spherical graphite appears in the structure. Our theoretical analysis was basically in agreement with the experiment result.