Final Technical Report: Grain Boundary Complexions and Transitions in Doped Silicon

This four-year research project has advanced the fundamental knowledge of grain boundary (GB) complexions (i.e., "two-dimensional interfacial phases") and associated GB "phase" transitions in several grounds. First, a bilayer interfacial phase, which had been directly observed by microscopy only in complex ceramic systems in prior studies, has been identified in simpler systems such as Au-doped Si and Bi-doped Ni in this study, where the interpretations of the their formation mechanisms and microscopic images are less equivocal. Second, convincing evidence for the existence of a first-order GB transition from a nominally "clean" GB to a bilayer adsorption interfacial phase has been revealed for Au-doped Si; the confirmation of the first-order nature of interfacial transitions at GBs, which was rare in prior studies, is scientifically significant and technologically important. Third, the bilayer interfacial phase discovered in Bi-doped Ni has been found to be the cause of the mysterious liquid metal embrittlement phenomenon in this system; the exact atomic level mechanism of this phenomenon has puzzled the materials and physics communities for over a century. Finally, significant advancements have been made to establish phenomenological thermodynamic models for GB complexions and transitions. Since GB complexions can control the transport, mechanical and physical properties of a broad range of metallic and ceramic materials, the fundamental knowledge generated by this project can have broad impacts on materials design in general. In this regard, understanding and controlling GB phase behaviors (complexions and transitions) can be an important component for the "Materials Genome" project