Initiation and growth of the discontinuous precipitation reaction at [0 1 1] symmetric tilt boundaries in Cu–Be alloy bicrystals Original Research Article

The initiation and growth of discontinuous precipitation (DP) at [0 1 1] symmetric tilt boundaries in Cu–0.75 wt% Be alloy bicrystals have been studied. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that γ precipitates tended to nucleate at a boundary in such a manner that their habit plane, {1 1 2}α or {4 4 5}α, with one of the adjoining grains lay as close as possible to the boundary. The habit plane with a low energy formed on both sides of the precipitates behind an initially migrating boundary, indicating the importance of the existence of the low-energy habit plane for the initial boundary migration. The incubation period to initiate DP and cell growth rate for a boundary show a good correlation with the energy of the boundary. A kinetic analysis of DP using the models of Turnbull, and Petermann and Hornbogen has yielded boundary diffusion data. A higher-energy boundary has a higher diffusivity with a smaller activation energy.