Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Atomic Diffusion, Segregation, and Grain Boundary Migration in Nickel-Based Alloys from Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Journal Article · · Materials Today Communications

Grain boundary diffusion and metal mobility in alloys control material performance in many applications and yet remain poorly understood at a mechanistic level. With advances in accessible time and length scales for computational molecular simulations, and recent force field developments, we now possess tools to help unravel those mechanisms. Using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations, here we examined vacancy-mediated diffusion processes in Ni-5Cr alloy with low and high-energy grain boundaries. We show that atomic diffusion inside the grain boundary plane is about four times higher than bulk diffusion, at any temperature, and exhibits a typical Arrhenius behavior with a very small energy barrier (0~.8 eV for Cr and 0.7 eV for Ni within 1300-1600 K). Additionally, the fastest diffusing species inverts; Cr diffusion was faster than Ni in the bulk but slower in the grain boundaries. This is attributed to the creation of high cohesive energy clusters of Cr at the grain boundary. Grain boundary migration was also observed to be temperature dependent and appears to be two times higher in the 5% Cr alloy than in pure Ni, highlighting the important role of the alloying element on grain boundary motion.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1975254
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-176822
Journal Information:
Materials Today Communications, Vol. 35
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (87)

Influence of dislocations on diffusion kinetics in solids with particular reference to the alkali halides journal January 1961
Metal oxidation kinetics and the transition from thin to thick films journal January 2012
Grain boundary complexions journal January 2014
Thermodynamics and structural aspects of grain boundary segregation journal January 1995
Model for grain boundary sliding and its relevance to optimal structural superplasticity Part 1—Theory journal May 1996
Effect of grain boundaries on the conductivity of high-purity ZrO2Y2O3 ceramics journal March 1982
50 Years of Grain Boundary Diffusion: What Do We Know about It Today? journal April 2001
Grain boundary diffusion: fundamentals to recent developments journal January 1997
Grain boundary diffusion: recent progress and future research journal February 1999
Multiscale model of metal alloy oxidation at grain boundaries journal June 2015
A generalized mathematical framework for thermal oxidation kinetics journal July 2011
Diffusion along grain boundaries and dislocations in oxides, alkali halides and carbides journal March 1984
Grain boundary diffusion mechanisms in metals journal December 1982
Toward design of cation transport in solid-state battery electrolytes: Structure-dynamics relationships journal December 2020
Acceleration of grain boundary motion in Al by small additions of Ga journal December 1995
Effect of Fe Segregation on the Migration of a Non-Symmetric Σ5 Tilt Grain Boundary in Al journal January 2005
Grain boundary diffusion and grain boundary segregation of tellurium in silver journal June 1993
Nickel and selenium grain boundary solute diffusion and segregation in silver journal March 1998
Effect of alloying elements on defect evolution in Ni-20X binary alloys journal June 2018
Roles of vacancy/interstitial diffusion and segregation in the microchemistry at grain boundaries of irradiated Fe–Cr–Ni alloys journal May 2016
The effect of Cr alloying on defect migration at Ni grain boundaries journal January 2022
The relationship between grain boundary structure, defect mobility and grain boundary sink efficiency journal March 2015
Effect of grain size on void formation during high-energy electron irradiation of austenitic stainless steel journal January 1974
Radiation damage tolerant nanomaterials journal November 2013
Diffusion induced grain boundary migration journal January 1987
Mechanism for diffusion induced grain boundary migration journal March 1981
Diffusion induced grain boundary migration in and thin films journal April 1982
Correlation between Grain Boundary Migration and Stress Corrosion Cracking of Alloy 600 in Hydrogenated Steam journal March 2020
Grain boundary depletion and migration during selective oxidation of Cr in a Ni–5Cr binary alloy exposed to high-temperature hydrogenated water journal October 2014
Diffusion induced grain boundary migration in CuZn journal June 1982
On the driving force for diffusion induced grain boundary migration journal February 1983
On the kinetic behavior and driving force of diffusion induced grain boundary migration journal August 1995
The impurity-drag effect in grain boundary motion journal September 1962
Chemically induced grain boundary migration journal February 1978
Chemically Induced Interface Migration in Solids journal August 1989
Role of Cr-rich carbide precipitates in the intergranular oxidation of Ni-Cr alloys journal November 2018
Adsorption and diffusion of atomic oxygen and sulfur at pristine and doped Ni surfaces with implications for stress corrosion cracking journal December 2016
A study on the diffusion-induced grain boundary migration ahead of stress corrosion cracking crack tips through advanced characterization journal May 2021
Understanding the role of Diffusion Induced Grain Boundary Migration on the preferential intergranular oxidation behaviour of Alloy 600 via advanced microstructural characterization journal August 2019
Atomistic study of grain-boundary segregation and grain-boundary diffusion in Al-Mg alloys journal December 2020
Grain Boundary Phases in a Hot-Pressed MgO Fluxed Silicon Nitride journal November 1977
Impurity Phases in Hot-Pressed Si3N4 journal September 1978
Complexion: A new concept for kinetic engineering in materials science journal October 2007
The Role of a Bilayer Interfacial Phase on Liquid Metal Embrittlement journal September 2011
Origin of Solid-State Activated Sintering in Bi2O3-Doped ZnO journal April 1999
Evaluating the potential of 188Re-SOCTA–trastuzumab as a new radioimmunoagent for breast cancer treatment journal January 2009
Effect of Interface Phase Transformations on Diffusion and Segregation in High-Angle Grain Boundaries journal June 2013
Grain-boundary melting phase transition in the Cu − Bi system journal March 2005
The importance of grain boundary complexions in affecting physical properties of polycrystals journal October 2016
Diffuse interface model for structural transitions of grain boundaries journal January 2006
Temperature dependence of grain boundary excess free volume journal March 2020
Embedded-atom-method functions for the fcc metals Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pd, Pt, and their alloys journal June 1986
Simple embedded atom method model for fcc and hcp metals journal June 1988
Alloy models with the embedded-atom method journal June 1989
The embedded-atom method: a review of theory and applications journal March 1993
Interatomic potential for studying ageing under irradiation in stainless steels: the FeNiCr model alloy journal October 2013
Interatomic potential to study plasticity in stainless steels: the FeNiCr model alloy journal November 2011
Accurate classical short-range forces for the study of collision cascades in Fe–Ni–Cr journal October 2017
An Fe-Ni-Cr embedded atom method potential for austenitic and ferritic systems: An Fe-Ni-Cr embedded atom method potential for austenitic and ferritic systems journal October 2018
LAMMPS - a flexible simulation tool for particle-based materials modeling at the atomic, meso, and continuum scales journal February 2022
Ab Initio Modeling of Bulk and Intragranular Diffusion in Ni Alloys journal April 2015
Interface Mobility from Interface Random Walk journal October 2006
Evidence for Vacancy Mechanism in Grain Boundary Diffusion in bcc Iron: A Molecular-Dynamics Study journal October 1981
Vacancy diffusion along twist grain boundaries in copper journal January 1991
Interstitial diffusion along twist grain boundaries in Cu journal November 1995
Study of grain boundary self-diffusion in iron with different atomistic models journal April 2020
Structure and Energy of Symmetric Tilt Boundaries with the 〈110〉 Axis in Ni and the Energy of Formation of Vacancies in Grain Boundaries journal July 2021
Ab initio molecular dynamics simulation of interstitial diffusion in Ni–Cr alloys and implications for radiation induced segregation journal June 2014
Self-diffusion of the components in the F.C.C. phase of binary solid solutions of the FeNiCr system journal September 1981
Diffusion of Ni63 and Cr51 in Nickel-Chromium Alloys (On the Relation between High-Temperature Creep and Diffusion in Nickel Base Solid Solutions. I) [Ni-Cr合金中のNi63およびCr51の拡散] journal January 1964
Tracer diffusion of Cr in Ni and Ni-22Cr studied by SIMS journal November 2018
Interdiffusion and its size effect in nickel solid solutions of Ni-Co, Ni-Cr and Ni-Ti systems journal January 1992
Ab initio-based diffusion theory and tracer diffusion in Ni–Cr and Ni–Fe alloys journal October 2010
First principles calculations of alloying element diffusion coefficients in Ni using the five-frequency model journal October 2012
A first-principles study of self-diffusion coefficients of fcc Ni journal April 2014
The influence of ∑3 twin boundaries on the formation of radiation-induced defect clusters in nanotwinned Cu journal June 2011
Vacancy loss at grain boundaries in quenched polycrystalline gold journal March 1980
The observation of vacancy sources in metals journal January 1958
Generalized Representation of Grain Boundary Self-Diffusion data journal April 1985
Correlations for diffusion constants journal August 1980
Calculation of Diffusion Penetration Curves for Surface and Grain Boundary Diffusion journal January 1951
Grain-boundary diffusion in metals journal January 1983
Modeling selective intergranular oxidation of binary alloys journal January 2015
Self-diffusion in high-angle fcc metal grain boundaries by molecular dynamics simulation journal November 1999
Grain boundary diffusion of chromium in polycrystalline nickel studied by SIMS journal June 2019
Computation of grain boundary stiffness and mobility from boundary fluctuations journal July 2006
Robust structural identification via polyhedral template matching journal May 2016

Similar Records

Atomic diffusion, segregation, and grain boundary migration in nickel-based alloys from molecular dynamics simulations
Journal Article · 2023 · Materials Today Communications · OSTI ID:1962786

Multiscale model of metal alloy oxidation at grain boundaries
Journal Article · 2015 · Journal of Chemical Physics · OSTI ID:22415929

Multiscale model of metal alloy oxidation at grain boundaries
Journal Article · 2015 · Journal of Chemical Physics, 142(21):Article No. 214114 · OSTI ID:1203895

Related Subjects