High-speed superplasticity of microcrystalline alloys under conditions of local grain boundary melting

A model is proposed for the high-speed superplasticity of materials under conditions of local grain boundary melting at temperatures close to solidus. It is shown that the local melting of grain boundaries containing segregations of impurity atoms, results in the formation of a structure consisting of liquid-phase regions and solid intergranular bridges which provide cohesion of the grains during the deformation process. The equilibrium concentration, dimensions, and activation energy for the formation of solid bridges are determined as a function of the temperature, initial impurity concentration in the boundary, and the boundary thickness. A mechanism is proposed for grain-boundary slip under conditions of local grain boundary at anomalously high strain rates. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 68, 38–42 (December 1998)     

纳晶铜晶粒尺寸对热导率的影响

用热压烧结法制备得到纳晶铜块体. 用激光法测定了不同温度下制备得到的纳晶铜块体的热导率, 并建立卡皮查热阻模型对样品热导率进行模拟. 通过对比, 模拟结果与实验数据基本一致. 随着热压烧结温度的升高, 纳晶铜晶粒尺寸也随之增大. 在900和700 ℃其热导率分别达到了最大和最小值且所对应的热导率分别为200.63和233.37 W·m^-1·K^-1, 各占粗晶铜块体热导率的53.4%和60.6%. 验证了纳晶铜热导率在一定的晶粒尺寸范围内具有尺寸效应, 随着晶粒尺寸的减小, 热导率逐渐减小.     

Influence of grain boundaries on the distribution of components in binary alloys

Physics of the Solid State - Based on the free-energy density functional method (the Cahn–Hilliard equation), a phenomenological model that describes the influence of grain boundaries on the...     

Elastic instability of grain boundaries and the physical origin of superplasticity

Matter between contiguous crystallites is assimilated to a thin elastic plate immersed in a different elastic medium. It is shown that a shear stress exceeding a critical value should corrugate the boundary and induce periodic normal stress fields in the two adjacent crystal surfaces, which cause motion of vacancies in closed loops between the two crystals. The consequent cyclic transport of atoms in the opposite sense determines crystal sliding at a temperature dependent relative speed. Most of the phenomenology of superplastic allows follows in a quantitative manner.     

Fe基纳米晶合金晶粒尺寸反常变化的物理机制

晶粒尺寸在很大程度上决定了Fe基纳米晶合金的磁学性能,其随退火温度变化的物理机理是纳米晶领域重要的研究内容.研究了初始晶化温度与二次晶化温度之间退火1 h Fe基纳米晶合金晶粒尺寸随退火温度的变化,并建立了相应的模型.利用提出的模型分析了该温度范围内Fe基纳米晶合金晶粒尺寸随退火温度升高先减小后增大的物理机制. 研究发现,在初始晶化温度与二次晶化温度之间等时退火,当退火温度约为Fe基纳米晶合金熔点的0.6倍时其晶粒尺寸最小.在研究的温度区间内,理论研究结果与实验符合得较好. 本研究提供了一种快速获得小晶粒尺寸纳米晶合金的方法.     

Effect of grain boundaries on the electron work function of nanocrystalline nickel

The electron work function of nickel with various grain sizes has been studied. It has been shown that the work function decreases as the specific length of grain boundaries in nickel increases with decreasing average grain size. It has been found that the transformation of grain boundaries from a nonequilibrium to equilibrium state leads to an increase in the electron work function by 0.15 eV.     

Influence of environment and grain size on magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Mn–Zn ferrite

Nanocrystalline Mn_1−xZn_xFe₂O₄ (0.2?x?0.9) was prepared by mechanical alloying of the concerned oxide precursors and subsequent annealing in air and Ar atmosphere, respectively. Milling and annealing in air produces Zn-ferrites (ZnFe₂O₄) instead of Mn–Zn ferrites as MnO converts to higher oxides at higher oxygen partial pressure and fails to dissolve in the spinel phase. This is confirmed by careful quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis using Rietvelt profile matching and also by the non-saturating paramagnetic nature of the magnetization response with very low saturation level of these spinels milled and annealed in air. On the other hand, single-phase Mn–Zn ferrite results from the identical precursor oxide blend when milling and annealing are carried out under controlled (Ar) atmosphere. The average grain size of the as-milled and annealed powders, measured by Rietvelt refinement, varies between 6–8 and 14–18 nm, respectively. Further investigations performed with Mn_0.6Zn_0.4Fe₂O₄ reveal that a careful selection of annealing parameters may lead to an early superparamagnetic relaxation. Therefore, the blocking temperature can be significantly reduced through proper heat treatment schedule to ensure superparamagnetism and negligible hysteresis at low temperature.     

Influence of impurities on the low-temperature deformation of nanocrystalline copper

The influence of ZrO₂ particles on the low-temperature deformation of nanocrystalline copper produced by strong plastic deformation is investigated using equichannel angular pressing. A comparison is made between the deformation characteristics in tension and compression in the temperature range 4.2–400 K, measured for copper and the composite Cu:0.3 vol. % ZrO₂. It is shown that within 4.2–200 K the yield point σ _sm of the composite is higher than that for copper, attaining 680 MPa at 4.2 K, then the yield points are close in value up to room temperature, and diverge again as the temperature is raised. Possible causes of the dissimilar influence of an impurity on the strength and plasticity characteristics of nanocrystalline copper in various temperature intervals are discussed. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 1639–1641 (September 1998)     

The effect of particle size on the surface composition of microcrystalline alloys

Thin films a Ni?1at%Pd alloy, ranging in thickness from 10 to 100 Å were deposited onto alumina substrates by RF sputtering. The films were subsequently heat treated to produce small particles of the alloy with average sizes in the range 300 to 1000 Å. The surface composition of aggregates of small particles was determined by Auger electron spectroscopy after equilibration of the samples at 650°C. Average particle sizes were determined by analysis of photomicrographs taken by electron microscopy techniques. The results show a strong dependence of surface composition on particle size. A decrease of a factor of five in surface concentration of palladium is observed over the range of particle sizes studied. The dependence of equilibrium surface composition on particle size has been estimated by means of a mass balance model. While this model accounts qualitatively for the effects of particle size on surface composition, discrepancies between model predictions and the experimental results suggest the intervention of other phenomena, possibly related to capillarity effects.     

The co-effect of induced and structural anisotropies on nanocrystalline alloys

In this paper, the co-effect of induced and structural anisotropies is studied for two-phase nanocrystalline alloys. Based on G. Herzer’s random anisotropy model and K. Suzuki’s treatment, we predict the effective anisotropy for FINEMET flakes with variant phase morphology. Theoretical results are close to the experiments. It is found that the magnetization hardening at initial crystallization stage caused by the disturbance of amorphous phase to the exchange coupling effect of nanograins can be explained by the nonlinear co-work of induced and structural anisotropies.     

Influences of grain size and microstructure on optical properties of microcrystalline diamond films

Microcrystalline diamond(MCD) films with different grain sizes ranging from 160 nm to 2200 nm are prepared by using a hot filament chemical vapor deposition(HFCVD) system, and the influences of grain size and structural features on optical properties are investigated. The results show that the film with grain size in a range of 160 nm–310 nm exhibits a higher refractive index in a range of(2.77–2.92). With grain size increasing to 620±300 nm, the refractive index shows a value between 2.39 and 2.47, approaching to that of natural diamond(2.37–2.55), and a lower extinction coefficient value between 0.08 and 0.77. When the grain size increases to 2200 nm, the value of refractive index increases to a value between 2.66 and 2.81, and the extinction coefficient increases to a value in a range of 0.22–1.28. Visible Raman spectroscopy measurements show that all samples have distinct diamond peaks located in a range of 1331 cm~(-1)–1333 cm~(-1),the content of diamond phase increases gradually as grain size increases, and the amount of trans-polyacetylene(TPA)content decreases. Meanwhile, the sp~2 carbon clusters content and its full-width-at-half-maximum(FWHM) value are significantly reduced in MCD film with a grain size of 620 nm, which is beneficial to the improvement of the optical properties of the films.     

Effect of grain size dispersion on the strength and plasticity of nanocrystalline metals

The effect of the dispersion of the grain size distribution on the yield stress, ultimate stress, and uniform strain of nanocrystalline metals is analyzed theoretically. It is shown that, as the grain size dispersion increases, the degree of grain boundary hardening (Hall-Petch effect) of nanocrystalline materials decreases, the onset of the grain boundary softening (inverse Hall-Petch effect) shifts to smaller nanograin sizes, and the uniform strain at which necking occurs increases.     

Influence of the grain size on the resistance of micro- and nanocrystalline metals against the neck-like localization of plastic deformation

The “high strength-low plasticity resource” dilemma associated with the macrolocalization of plastic deformation in the form of a neck in a stretched specimen, which leads to ductile failure of the specimen, has been theoretically discussed in the framework of the dislocation-kinetic approach. It has been quantitatively demonstrated using micro- and nanocrystalline metals as an example that their low plasticity resource (a small value of uniform strain before the beginning of the neck formation) and quasi-embrittlement result from the strong increase in the yield strength with a decrease in the grain size and the strain-hardening coefficient due to the annihilation of dislocations in the boundaries and bulk of grains.     

Influence of grain boundaries on the recombination rate in germanium

The electronic properties of the In (→ Cd) acceptor are studied in polycrystalline germanium by the perturbed angular correlation method (PAC). The time independent anisotropy reveals a strong temperature dependence. This behaviour can be explained quantitatively by a model based on recombination processes at the Cd acceptor. The recombination rates depend on the annealing procedure of the samples, thus indicating a strong influence of the grain boundaries.     

XMCD study of the local magnetic and structural properties of microcrystalline NdFeB-based alloys

X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) technique was used to investigate local magnetic properties of microcrystalline Nd_10.4Zr_4.0Fe_79.2B_6.4 samples, oriented along either easy or hard magnetization direction. The Nd L _2,3 and Fe K edge XMCD spectra were measured at room temperature under a magnetic field of T. A very strong dependence of XMCD spectra on the sample orientation has been observed at the NdL _2,3-edges, whereas the Fe K-edge XMCD spectra are found to be practically isotropic. This result indicates that magnetic anisotropy of NdFeB-based alloys originates from the Nd sublattice. In addition, element selective magnetization curves have been recorded by measuring the intensity of XMCD signals as a function of an applied magnetic field up to T. To find a correlation between local and macroscopic magnetic properties of studied samples we compared these data with magnetization curves, measured by vibrating sample magnetometer up to T. Results are important for understanding the origin of high-coercivity state in NdFeB-based intermetallic compounds.     

Influence of the temperature and structural state on the systematic features of plastic deformation in Mo-Re-based alloys

The salient aspects of the formation of a dislocation structure during plastic deformation of the alloys Mo-47 wt. % Re and Mo-47 wt. % Re-1 vol. % ZrO₂ at T=300 K in previously recrystallized and polygonalized structural states have been studied with an electron microscope. The studies revealed the systematic features of rotational modes of plastic deformation in these alloys under conditions of substructural hardening and high-temperature grain-boundary slip. An analysis is made of the effect that the substructure and highly dispersed particles of the oxide phase have on the plastic deformation and mechanical properties of Mo-Re-based alloys at T=300-1500 K.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 96–104, December, 1994.     

Wetting of grain boundaries by the second solid phase in Al-based alloys

This work presents data on changes in the structure and properties of aluminum-based alloys subjected to severe plastic deformation by high-pressure torsion. Microstructure and the composition and change in temperature for phases are studied for double (Al-Zn, Al-Mg) and ternary (Al-Mg-Zn) alloys. Tie-lines of the liquid phase wetting of grain boundaries and grain boundary solvus lines are constructed on phase diagrams of our Al-Zn and Al-Mg systems. The shifting of the phase composition in the bulk of aluminum grains from the Al + τ region to the Al + η region of the Al-Mg-Zn phase diagram with an increase in the specific area of grain boundaries is described.     

Grain growth and collective migration of grain boundaries during plastic deformation of nanocrystalline materials

A theoretical model is proposed for the collective migration of two neighboring grain boundaries (GBs) in a nanocrystalline material under applied elastic stress. By analyzing the change in the energy of the system, it is shown that GBs can remain immobile or migrate toward each other depending on the values of the applied shear stress and misorientation angles. The process of GB migration can proceed either in a stable regime, wherein the GBs occupy equilibrium positions corresponding to a minimum of the energy of the system under relatively small applied stress, or in an unstable regime, wherein the motion of GBs under relatively high stress is accompanied by a continuous decrease in the system energy and becomes uncontrollable. The stable migration of GBs leads to a decrease of the grain bounded by them at the cost of growth of the neighbor grains and can result in complete or partial annihilation of the GBs and the collapse of this grain. Unstable migration leads either to annihilation of GBs or to passage of them through each other, which can be considered as the disappearance of the grain and nucleation and growth of a new grain.