Segregation of P and S Impurities to A Sigma 9 Grain Boundary in Cu

• The segregation of P and S to grain boundaries (GBs) in fcc Cu has implications in diverse physical-chemical properties of the material and this can be of particular high relevance when the material is employed in high performance applications. Here, we studied the segregation of P and S to the symmetric tilt Sigma 9 (22 over bar 1 over bar ) [110], 38.9 degrees GB of fcc Cu. This GB is characterized by a variety of segregation sites within and near the GB plane, with considerable differences in both atomic site volume and coordination number and geometry. We found that the segregation energies of P and S vary considerably both with distance from the GB plane and sites within the GB plane. The segregation energy is significantly large at the GB plane but drops to almost zero at a distance of only approximate to 3.5 angstrom from this. Additionally, for each impurity there are considerable variations in energy (up to 0.6 eV) between segregation sites in the GB plane. These variations have origins both in differences in coordination number and atomic site volume with the effect of coordination number dominating. For sites with the same coordination number, up to a certain atomic site volume, a larger atomic site volume leads to a stronger segregation. After that limit in volume has been reached, a larger volume leads to weaker segregation. The fact that the segregation energy varies with such magnitude within the Sigma 9 GB plane may have implications in the accumulation of these impurities at these GBs in the material. Because of this, atomic-scale variations of concentration of P and S are expected to occur at the Sigma 9 GB center and in other GBs with similar features.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik -- Metallurgi och metalliska material (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering -- Metallurgy and Metallic Materials (hsv//eng)

Keyword

grain boundaries

segregation

copper

density functional theory

sigma 9

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)