An atomic-scale study was made of a [¯110] symmetrical tilt grain boundary, using a modified analytical embedded atom method, for 44 planes in Au, Ag and Cu. For each metal, the energies of 2 crystals ideally joined together were unrealistically high due to the very short distances between atoms near to the grain boundary plane. Relative sliding between grains in the grain boundary plane resulted in a significant decrease in grain boundary energy and a minimum value was obtained at a specific translation distance. The minimum energy of Cu was much higher than that of Ag and Au, while the minimum energy of Ag was slightly higher than that of Au. For all of the metals, the 3 lowest energies corresponded to identical (111), (113) and (331) boundary successively for the 2 translations considered. According to the minimization of grain boundary energy, the boundaries were preferable in the [¯110] symmetrical tilt grain boundaries of noble metals. This was consistent with experiment. The minimum energy increased with increasing reciprocal planar coincidence density, Σ, but decreased with increasing relative interplanar distance d/a.

Computer Simulation of Symmetrical Tilt Grain Boundaries in Noble Metals with MAEAM. J.M.Zhang, Y.H.Huang, K.W.Xu, V.Ji: Chinese Physics, 2007, 16, 210-6