A study was made of the chemical transport of Mg and Al dopants during the annealing, under a controlled atmosphere, of Ni thin foil. The transport process was monitored by means of scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, transmission electron microscopy, Auger electron spectrometry, secondary ion mass spectrometry, glow discharge optical emission spectrometry and X-ray diffraction. It was shown that chemical transport occurred mainly via a grain boundary mechanism, involving a significant pile-up of compounds. The resulting precipitates had compositions which depended clearly upon their location relative to the grain boundary pattern.

Chemical Transport of Mg and Al in Thin Foils of Nickel Alloys. F.Poret, P.Dufour, B.De Rosa, J.M.Roquais, A.Steinbrunn: Solid State Phenomena, 2000, 72, 35-40