PNNL

Abstract

For the past quarter decade, the science and technology of nanocrystalline materials (materials with grain sizes less than 100 nm) has been an extremely rich and diverse field of study.1,2 Generally, it has been observed that tremendous improvements in physical and mechanical properties, including order-of-magnitude increases in yield strength, are possible.2 As predicted by the Hall– Petch equation,3,4 a reduction in grain size should be accompanied by an increase in strength. But, despite the promise of nanocrystalline materials for a host of structural and functional applications, their use has been severely limited by their lack of microstructural stability at elevated temperatures5 or under mechanical loads.6,7 In the case of pure metals, this coarsening often occurs even at ambient temperatures.5 Ironically, the same features that often result in the enhancement of properties in nanocrystalline materials, namely the high volume fraction of high-energy grain boundaries, are responsible for the observed grain growth or phase transformation.8