Samples of the dilute alloys, containing minor Sc additions, were processed using equal-channel angular pressing to achieve grain refinement and various distributions of grain-boundary misorientation. Diffusion experiments were carried out on fine-grained samples with low or high fractions of grain boundaries having high-angle misorientations, and on non-pressed coarse-grained samples. The diffusion couples were annealed at 493 to 848K, and the interdiffusion coefficients were deduced from the concentration profiles by using the Boltzmann-Matano technique. The results showed that the interdiffusion coefficients tended to be higher in fine-grained alloys with high fractions of high-angle boundaries, than in fine-grained alloys having high fractions of low-angle boundaries.

Using Grain Boundary Engineering to Evaluate the Diffusion Characteristics in Ultrafine-Grained Al–Mg and Al–Zn Alloys. T.Fujita, Z.Horita, T.G.Langdon: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2004, 371[1-2], 241-50