Manipulation of solute partitioning mechanisms for nanocrystalline stability

Abstract We describe an approach that enables the activation of two distinct nanocrystalline stability mechanisms in the same Ni(P) alloy by controlling the annealing temperature and chemical composition. Using a two-step heating process, it is shown that a low temperature first stage anneal (350 °C/1 h) drives the solute in a Ni-1at%P alloy to decorate the grain boundaries (GBs) in achieving thermodynamic stabilization at higher temperatures (550 °C). Atom probe tomography reveals a very low contamination level of species (