EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L77966/01
Title: GRAIN BOUNDARY MIGRATION AND THE REACTIVE ELEMENT EFFECT
Principal Investigator: Harding, Professor J
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Organisation: UCL
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 March 1998 Ends: 28 February 2001 Value (£): 51,126
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Characterisation
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The reactive element effect, whereby the addition of small amounts of certain elements to an alloy can slow down the growth of oxide scale, has been known for fifty years. Despite this, the controversy about its mechanism continues. The usual explanation, that the reactive elements segregate to the grain boundaries and block cation diffusion, is not the only possibility and experimental data indicates that it is oversimplified. The proposal is to study grain boundary migration in ceramics and investigate the mechanism for the reactive element effect. Three candidate oxides (NiO, Al203 and Cr203) have been chosen. A variety of grain boundaries will be considered. The segregation energy of various species to the interfaces (gas/oxide, grain boundary and metal/oxide) will be calculated and the effect of those species on the interface structures investigated for various concentrations of the dopant. Both bulk and grain boundary diffusion activation energies (and where possible entropies) will be determined. The effect, of candidate reactive elements of the diffusion will be considered and two questions addressed; first, can a grain boundary mechanism explain the reactive element effect? second, is it possible to predict trends in behaviour and hence new reactive elements.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: