Grain Boundaries

A grain boundary is the interface between two grains, or crystallites, in a polycrystalline material. Grain boundaries are 2D defects in the crystal structure, and tend to decrease the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material. Most grain boundaries are preferred sites for the onset of corrosion and for the precipitation of new phases from the solid. They are also important to many of the mechanisms of creep. On the other hand, grain boundaries disrupt the motion of dislocations through a material, so reducing crystallite size is a common way to improve mechanical strength, as described by the Hall–Petch relationship. The study of grain boundaries and their effects on the mechanical, electronic and other properties of materials forms an important topic in materials scienceز It is convenient to categorize grain boundaries according to the extent of misorientation between the two grains. Low-angle grain boundaries or subgrain boundaries are those with a misorientation less than about 15 degrees.[1] Generally speaking they are composed of an array of dislocations and their properties and structure are a function of the misorientation. In contrast the properties of high-angle grain boundaries, whose misorientation is greater than about 15 degrees (the transition angle varies from 10–15 degrees depending on the material), are normally found to be independent of the misorientation. However, there are special boundaries at particular orientations whose interfacial energies are markedly lower than those of general high-angle grain boundariesز