Related papers: Nanoconfined Grain Boundaries Increase Conductivit…
Grain boundaries (GB) profoundly influence the electrical properties of polycrystalline ionic solids. Yet, precise control of their transport characteristics has remained elusive, thereby limiting the performance of solid-state…
Polycrystalline materials can be viewed as composites of crystalline particles or grains separated from one another by thin amorphous grain boundary (GB) regions. While GB have been exhaustively investigated at low temperatures, where these…
Argyrodite solid electrolytes, such as Li$_6$PS$_5$Cl, exhibit some of the highest known superionic conductivities. Yet, the mechanistic understanding of Li$^+$ transport in realistic argyrodite microstructures -- where atomic-scale…
Solute segregation in materials with grain boundaries (GBs) has emerged as a popular method to thermodynamically stabilize nanocrystalline structures. However, the impact of varied GB crystallographic character on solute segregation has…
Grain boundaries (GBs) are ubiquitous in polycrystalline graphene materials obtained by various growth methods. It has been shown previously that considerable electrical transport gap can be opened by grain boundaries. On the other hand,…
Understanding oxygen diffusion along grain boundaries (GBs) is critical for controlling ionic conductivity in oxide ceramics. GBs are typically thought to enhance ionic transport due to structural disorder and increased free volume. In this…
Grain rotation and grain boundary (GB) sliding are two important mechanisms for grain coarsening and plastic deformation in nanocrystalline materials. They are in general coupled with GB migration and the resulting dynamics, driven by…
We report here an atomic resolution study of the structure and composition of the grain boundaries in polycrystalline Sr0.6K0.4Fe2As2 superconductor. A large fraction of grain boundaries contain amorphous layers larger than the coherence…
We study the crystallization of a colloidal model system in presence of secondary nanoparticles acting as impurities. Using confocal microscopy, we show that the nanoparticles segregate in the grain boundaries of the colloidal polycrystal.…
Grain boundaries (GBs) and interfaces in polycrystalline materials are significant research subjects in the field of materials science. Despite a more than 50-year history of their study, there are still many open questions. The main…
Nanocrystalline (NC) materials are intrinsically unstable against grain growth. Significant research efforts have been dedicated to suppressing the grain growth by solute segregation, including the pursuit of a special NC structure that…
Using computer simulations we explore how grain boundaries can be removed from three-dimensional colloidal crystals by doping with a small fraction of active colloids. We show that for sufficient self-propulsion, the system is driven into a…
Electric fields and currents, which are used in innovative materials processing and electrochemical energy conversion, can often alter microstructures in unexpected ways. However, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Using…
Researchers are currently exploring nanoporous two-dimensional materials, such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), as potential desalination membranes. Here, we study the effect of grain boundaries (GBs) and interfacial electrostatic…
Local chemical ordering strongly influences the behavior of complex concentrated alloys, yet its characterization remains challenging due to the nanoscale dimensions and scattered spatial distribution of the ordered domains. Here, we study…
Grain boundaries play a major role for electron transport in graphene sheets grown by chemical vapor deposition. Here we investigate the electronic structure and transport properties of idealized graphene grain boundaries (GBs) in…
Engineering structure of grain boundaries (GBs) by solute segregation is a promising strategy to tailor the properties of polycrystalline materials. Theoretically it has been suggested that solute segregation can trigger phase transitions…
We present the results of molecular dynamics modeling on the structural properties of grain boundaries (GB) in thin polycrystalline films. The transition from crystalline boundaries with low mismatch angle to amorphous boundaries is…
While it is known that alloy components can segregate to grain boundaries (GBs), and that the atomic mobility in GBs greatly exceeds the atomic mobility in the lattice, little is known about the effect of GB segregation on GB diffusion.…
Grain boundary (GB) diffusion in polycrystalline materials is a physical phenomenon of great fundamental interest and practical significance. Although the accelerated ("short circuit") atomic transport along GBs has been known for decades,…