Evolution of microstructure in pure nickel during processing for grain boundary engineering

Abstract : Grain boundary engineered (GBE) materials have improved properties that are associated with the high fraction special Σ3n boundaries in the microstructure, where n = 1,2,3. Previous experimental studies with high purity nickel before and after thermomechanical processing have shown that the fraction of Σ3 boundaries increased by at least factor of two [1]. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is used to characterize the evolution of these special boundaries throughout the recrystallization process of a 25% cold rolled sample annealed at 490°C. The fractions of the Σ3 boundaries and coherent twins have been measured over time revealing a steadily increasing behavior over the entire microstructure. However partitioning to only include recrystallized regions reveals a different behavior in the Σ3 boundaries as fractions, which increase rapidly at first and then stagnate over time. Additional triple junction characterization was performed to monitor the evolution of triple junctions containing special boundaries.