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Grain Growth in Nanocrystalline Mg-Al Thin Films

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Abstract

An improved understanding of grain growth kinetics in nanocrystalline materials, and in metals and alloys in general, is of continuing interest to the scientific community. In this study, Mg-Al thin films containing ~10 wt pct Al and with 14.5 nm average grain size were produced by magnetron sputtering and subjected to heat treatments. The grain growth evolution in the early stages of heat treatment at 423 K, 473 K, and 573 K (150 °C, 200 °C, and 300 °C) was observed with transmission electron microscopy and analyzed based upon the classical equation developed by Burke and Turnbull. The grain growth exponent was found to be 7 ± 2 and the activation energy for grain growth was 31.1 ± 13.4 kJ/mol, the latter being significantly lower than in bulk Mg-Al alloys. The observed grain growth kinetics are explained by the Al supersaturation in the matrix and the pinning effects of the rapidly forming beta precipitates and possibly shallow grain boundary grooves. The low activation energy is attributed to the rapid surface diffusion which is dominant in thin film systems.

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Acknowledgments

This work was sponsored by the Vehicle Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. THM, JEE, and NDB acknowledge the support of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program Chemical Imaging Initiative at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). A portion of the research was performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) at PNNL. PNNL is a multiprogram national laboratory operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for DOE under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. The authors are grateful to Nicole Overman for performing EDS analysis on the as-sputtered films and Niranjan Govind, Saumyadeep Jana, and Suveen Mathaudhu for discussions about the grain size analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Karen Kruska & Aashish Rohatgi

  2. Environmental and Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Rama S. Vemuri, Libor Kovarik, Trevor H. Moser & James E. Evans

  3. Physical & Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Nigel D. Browning

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  1. Karen Kruska
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  2. Aashish Rohatgi
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  5. Trevor H. Moser
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Correspondence to Aashish Rohatgi.

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Manuscript submitted March 21, 2017.

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Kruska, K., Rohatgi, A., Vemuri, R.S. et al. Grain Growth in Nanocrystalline Mg-Al Thin Films. Metall Mater Trans A 48, 6118–6125 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-017-4350-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11661-017-4350-0

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