Papers by Keyword: Structural Unit

Abstract: Electrodeposition is an advanced synthesis technique which involves the creation of a coating or free-standing material through an electrolytic process. Organic additives such as saccharin have been frequently used in electroplating operations to moderate deposit growth rates and to control film quality. In the present study, plating of Nickel without additives has resulted in a sub-microcrystalline microstructure and a <110>-fibre texture in growth direction. Structural units in form of groups of grains possessing a common <110>-zone axis in growth direction and low-Σ relationships between them have been found in the microstructure by use of EBSD. Upon annealing, grain growth sets in. However, the structural units and the texture are preserved up to 550°C. This means that the structural units stabilize the microstructure; there is no orientation change when grain growth occurs (e.g. by twinning). The low-Σ boundaries of the structural units are described in detail and texture development upon annealing is discussed in connection with results from previous studies on Ni and Ni-alloys of different initial texture.

Abstract: Organic additives such as saccharin have been frequently used in electroplating operations to moderate deposit growth rates and to control film quality. In this study, texture development upon annealing of pulse-electroplated Nickel produced without additives is analyzed by use of electron backscatter diffraction technique. Plating without additives results in a microstructure with slightly elongated grains and a fibre texture in growth direction and this texture is conserved upon annealing up to 600°C. Structural units in form of groups of elongated grains possessing a common zone axis in growth direction and twin relationships between themselves are found in the microstructure. For revealing the influence of additives, the observations are compared with results obtained for Ni and Ni-Fe plated in the presence of additives where during abnormal grain growth the initial fibre texture changes to an energetically more favourable texture by twinning. The lack of additives is assumed to be responsible for the observed differences in texture and microstructure development.

Abstract: In the present study, grain boundary energy and atomic structure of <110> symmetric tilt boundaries in copper were evaluated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. From the simulations, the grain boundary energy of <110> symmetric tilt boundaries depended on misorientation angle and there were large energy cusps at the misorientation angles which corresponded to (111) S 3 and (113) S 11 symmetric tilt boundaries. It was found that the atomic structure of each <110> symmetric tilt boundary was described by the combination of three kinds of structural units which consisted of (331) S 19, (111) S 3 and (113) S 11 symmetric tilt boundaries and two single crystal units which consisted of (110) S 1and (001) S 1 single crystals. From the the analysis of the excess free volume in each grain boundary, it was found that the energy of structural units depended on the excess free volume of the units and that the misorientation dependence of grain boundary energy agreed with that of the free volume in grain boundaries.