Atomic-scale quantification of grain boundary segregation in nanocrystalline material.
Grain boundary segregation leads to nanoscale chemical variations that can alter a material's performance by orders of magnitude (e.g., embrittlement). To understand this phenomenon, a large number of grain boundaries must be characterized in terms of both their five crystallographic interface parameters and their atomic-scale chemical composition. We demonstrate how this can be achieved using an approach that combines the accuracy of structural characterization in transmission electron microscopy with the 3D chemical sensitivity of atom probe tomography. We find a linear trend between carbon segregation and the misorientation angle ω for low-angle grain boundaries in ferrite, which indicates that ω is the most influential crystallographic parameter in this regime. However, there are significant deviations from this linear trend indicating an additional strong influence of other crystallographic parameters (grain boundary plane, rotation axis). For high-angle grain boundaries, no general trend between carbon excess and ω is observed; i.e., the grain boundary plane and rotation axis have an even higher influence on the segregation behavior in this regime. Slight deviations from special grain boundary configurations are shown to lead to unexpectedly high levels of segregation.
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Herbig
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Raabe
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Li
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Choi
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany.
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Zaefferer
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Max-Planck-Strasse 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Resource Science, Akita University, Tegata Gakuencho, Akita 010-8502, Japan.
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Goto