TiC/316L stainless steel composites were prepared by selective laser melting. The adhesion work, interface energy and electronic structure of the TiC/γ-Fe interfaces in TiC/316L stainless steel composites were studied to investigate the heterogeneous nucleation potential of γ-Fe grains on TiC particles by using the first principle. The degree mismatch between TiC (001) and γ-Fe (001) interface was lowest. There are four TiC (001)/γ-Fe (001) interface models with different stacking sequences (on-site and bridge-site) and different atomic arrangement sequences (C centre and Ti centre). The results show that the Fe-on-Ti centre interface had the largest work of adhesion (3.87 J/m2) and lower interfacial energy (0.04 J/m2), it was more stable, and the interfacial energy of the model was lower than that of γ-Fe/Fe melt (0.24 J/m2). Strong Fe-C covalent bonds and Fe-Ti metallic bonds were formed near the interface, which increased the interfacial strength, indicating that TiC had strong heterogeneous nucleation potency for γ-Fe.
