Variability in the segregation of bismuth between grain boundaries in copper

✍ Scribed by V.J. Keast; A. La Fontaine; J. du Plessis

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 235 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1359-6454
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2007.05.034

✦ Synopsis

The distribution of segregation levels of bismuth to grain boundaries in copper has been measured and compared using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). The STEM-XEDS measurements showed that there are large numbers of grain boundaries with very low segregation levels which, as they are not embrittled, are not analysed using AES. A crystallographic analysis of a small number of boundaries showed that low segregation levels were not necessarily associated with special, high symmetry boundaries. These results indicate that only a part of the segregation behaviour can be explained by any results obtained using AES and that understanding the relationship between crystallography and brittle behavior will require going beyond a misorientation analysis.