A thermodynamic model for coupled adsorption and disordering transitions at grain boundaries was developed by combining diffuse-interface and lattice-gas models and incorporating colloidal type interfacial forces. This model produces a systematic spectrum of interfacial phenomena for grain boundaries, including first-order and continuous coupled pre-wetting and pre-melting transitions, critical points, multilayer adsorption, layering and roughening, and complete wetting and drying, and it produces a series of grain boundary “phases” (complexions) with character similar to those observed by Dillon et al. (2007). The presence of dispersion and electrostatic forces in ceramic materials could appreciably change grain boundary transitions.

Grain Boundary Complexions: the Interplay of Premelting, Prewetting and Multilayer Adsorption. J.Luo: Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 95[7], 071911