Thermodynamics and Kinetics of 1D Structural Elements and Stability of Nanocrystalline Materials

Abstract

Grain boundary triple junctions are the structural elements of a polycrystal. Recently it was recognized that they can strongly impact the microstructural evolution, and therefore there engender new opportunities to control and to design the grain microstructure of fine-grained and nanocrystalline materials due to their effect on recovery, recrystallization and grain growth. The measurement of triple junction energy and mobility is thus of great importance. The line energy of a triple junction constructs an additional driving force of grain growth. Taking the triple line energy into account, a modified form of the Zener force and the Gibbs-Thomson relation can be derived to reveal the influence of the triple line energy on second phase particles and the change of the equilibrium concentration of vacancies in the vicinity of voids at a grain boundary. The impact of triple junctions on the sintering of nanopowders is discussed. The role of “grain boundary - free surface” triple lines in the adhesive contact formation between spherical nanoparticles is considered. It is shown that there is a critical value of the triple line energy above which the nanoparticles do not stick together. Based on this result, a new nanoparticle agglomeration mechanism is proposed, which accounts for the formation of large agglomerates of crystallographically aligned nanoparticles during the nanopowder processing.