Anomalous dispersed states of alloys caused by segregation of impurities at phase interfaces

Abstract

The diffusion in alloys with tendency to impurity segregation at phase interfaces has been simulated by the Monte Carlo method. It has been shown that at the segregation energy higher than the critical value, dispersity of the system increases due to the suppression of coagulation of phase particles. The effect mathematically represents the violation of the Lifshitz-Slyozov kinetics of an infinite growth of phase particles, which is similar to the anomalous kinetics of grain growth in systems with an impurity. The existence of the equilibrium grain size due to the equilibrium grain size caused by the impurity segregation at grain boundaries was previously predicted by Weissmuller and is now confirmed experimentally. Thus, this study generalizes the Weissmuller effect to the thermodynamics of the decomposition in alloys.