Diffusion of silicon in aluminum

Abstract

Interdiffusion coefficients in Al-Si alloys were determined by Matano’s method in the tem-perature range from 753 to 893 K with the couple consisting of pure aluminum and an Al-Si alloy. Temperature dependence of the impurity diffusion coefficients of Si in Al, obtained by extrapolation of the concentration dependence of the interdiffusion coeffi-cient to zero mole fraction of Si, is given by the following equation: DSi/Al = (2.02+0.97 -0.66 × 10-4 exp [-(136 ±3) kJ mol-1/RT] m2/s. p ] The Kirkendall marker was found to move toward the Si-rich side, indicating that the Si atom diffuses faster than the Al atom in Al-Si alloys. From the interdiffusion coeffi-cient and the marker shift, the intrinsic diffusion coefficients were calculated. The difference in the activation energies (ΔQ) between the impurity diffusion of Si in Al and the self-diffusion of Al was estimated by means of the asymptotic oscillating po-tential and the Le Claire theory. The calculated value of ΔQ is in fair agreement with the experimental value. The vacancy-solute binding energy for Si in Al was also dis-cussed based on the diffusion data.