Bulk-to-surface precipitation and surface diffusion of carbon on polycrystalline nickel

The time evolution of the KLL Auger spectrum of carbon as a function of temperature is used to derive the kinetics of the surface diffusion and bulk-to-surface precipitation of carbon on polycrystalline nickel. The results show that the activation energy for the surface diffusion of carbon atoms on polycrystalline nickel is 6.9 ± 0.6 $\text{kcal}\text{mole}$, and the activation energy for bulk-to-surface precipitation is 9.4 ± 0.6 $\text{kcal}\text{mole}$. The dependence on the surface diffusion coefficient D_s (cm²s^?1), on the absolute temperature T can be represented, over the experimental temperature range, 350–425° C, by: $\text{ln}\text{D}{}_{\mathrm{s}}\text{= 10.27 ?}\text{3568}\text{T}$.