Crystallographic texture influences on the thermal stability of nanocrystalline materials

Abstract

The influence of crystallographic texture on the total amount of solute segregated at the grain boundaries (Xgb,tot) and consequently the weighted grain boundary energy (?w) of a nanocrystalline material is investigated. Toward this end, two different 3D nanostructures, one with random crystallographic texture and the other with {111} < 110 > texture, were generated. The grain boundary misorientation distribution was obtained from both the 3D nanostructures and converted into an equivalent grain boundary energy distribution using the data from Olmstead et al. It was found that both Xgb,tot and ?w are higher for the nanostructure bearing random texture vis-�-vis the {111} < 110 > texture. This has implications in the development of thermally stable nanocrystalline materials. The effect of texture is also discussed through a case study on the Ni�W system by invoking the nanocrystalline stability criterion proposed by Kalidindi and Schuh. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] � 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.