Capillary-driven interdiffusion along interphase boundaries in solids

Abstract

We consider chemical interdiffusion along interphase boundary (IB) between two immiscible solid phases. We derive explicit expressions for capillary-related excess chemical potentials of the atoms diffusing along the IB. The obtained expressions contain both a local term which depends on local curvature of the IB, and a non-local one which depends on overall system geometry and on energy of all surfaces and interfaces in the system. The obtained expressions are employed for describing the sintering of two immiscible two-dimensional solid particles controlled by surface and IB diffusion processes. We demonstrate that the sintering of particles is accompanied by relative rigid-body rotation of the particles even for fully isotropic surfaces and interphase boundaries.

Keywords:

• interface diffusion
• surface diffusion
• interphase boundaries
• sintering

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation, Grant No. 775/10, and by the Russell Berry Nanotechnology Institute at the Technion.