Solid Solutions

• A solid solution forms when, as the solute atoms are added to the host
material, the crystal structure is maintained and no new structures are
formed.
• A solid solution is also compositionally homogeneous; the impurity atoms
are randomly and uniformly dispersed within the solid
• Impurity point defects are found in solid solutions, of which there are two
types: substitutional and interstitial. For the substitutional type, solute or
impurity atoms replace or substitute for the host atoms.

Figure. Two-dimensional schematic

representations of substitutional and interstitial
impurity atoms.
 Solid Solutions
• Several features of the solute and solvent atoms determine the degree to which the former dissolves
in the latter, as follows:
• Atomic size factor Appreciable quantities of a solute may be accommodated in this type of solid
solution only when the difference in atomic radii between the two atom types is less than about
Otherwise the solute atoms will create substantial lattice distortions and a new phase will form.
• Crystal structure. For appreciable solid solubility the crystal structures for metals of both atom
types must be the same.
• Electronegativity. The more electropositive one element and the more electronegative the other,
the greater the likelihood that they will form an intermetallic compound instead of a substitutional
solid solution.
• Valences. Other factors being equal, a metal will have more of a tendency to dissolve another metal
of higher valency than one of a lower valency.
 Solid Solutions
• An example of a substitutional solid solution is found for copper and nickel. These two elements
are completely soluble in one another at all proportions.
• With regard to the aforementioned rules that govern degree of solubility, the atomic radii for
copper and nickel are 0.128 and 0.125 nm, respectively; both have the FCC crystal structure; and
their electronegativities are 1.9 and 1.8; finally, the most common valences are +1 for copper
(although it sometimes can be +2) and +2 for nickel.
• For interstitial solid solutions, impurity atoms fill the voids or interstices among the host atoms.
For metallic materials that have relatively high atomic packing factors, these interstitial positions
are relatively small.
• Consequently, the atomic diameter of an interstitial impurity must be substantially smaller than that
of the host atoms.
• Normally, the maximum allowable concentration of interstitial impurity atoms is low (less than
10%). Even very small impurity atoms are ordinarily larger than the interstitial sites, and as a
consequence they introduce some lattice strains on the adjacent host atoms.
 SPECIFICATION OF COMPOSITION
It is often necessary to express the composition (or concentration)3 of an alloy in terms of its constituent
elements. The two most common ways to specify composition are weight (or mass) percent and atom
percent. The basis for weight percent (wt%) is the weight of a particular element relative to the total alloy
weight. For an alloy that contains two hypothetical atoms denoted by 1 and 2, the concentration of 1 in
wt%, C1, is defined as
where m1 and m2 represent the weight (or mass) of elements 1 and 2, respectively.
The basis for atom percent (at%) calculations is the number of moles of an element in relation to the total
moles of the elements in the alloy. The number of moles in some specified mass of a hypothetical element
1, nm1, may be computed as follows:
Here, m1' and A1 denote the mass (in grams) and atomic weight, respectively, for element 1
Concentration in terms of atom percent of element 1 in an alloy containing element 1 and element 2 atoms,
is defined by
 Useful relation for Composition Conversions

• Weight percentages are denoted by C1 and C2, atom percentages by C1' and C2' and atomic weights
as A1 and A2.
• Alloy density and atomic weight by ρave and Aave, respectively
• C1'' and C2'' represent concentration in mass of components per unit volume of material
Determine the composition, in atom percent, of an alloy that
consists of 97 wt% aluminum and 3 wt% copper. Atomic mass of Al
and Cu are 26.98 g/mol and 63.55 g/mol .
 DISLOCATIONS—LINEAR DEFECTS
 A dislocation is a linear or one-dimensional defect around which some of the atoms
are misaligned.
 One type of dislocation is represented in Figure; an extra portion
of a plane of atoms, or half-plane, the edge of which terminates within the crystal.
 This is termed an edge dislocation; it is a linear defect that centers on the line that is
defined along the end of the extra half-plane of atoms.
 This is sometimes termed the dislocation line, which, for the edge dislocation in is
perpendicular to the plane of the page.

Fig: The atom positions around an edge dislocation;

extra half-plane of atoms shown in perspective.
 Line Defects: Edge dislocation, half plane

• All the bonds get stretched, and they become unstable.

• Only the bottom edge of the half plane is defect, not the entire plane.

Extra half plane

Missing half plane

 Line Defects
• A line defect is formed in a crystal when an atomic plane terminates within the crystal instead of
passing all the way to the end of the crystal.

• The energy required to create a dislocation is typically 100 eV per nm of dislocation line. On the
other hand, it takes only a few eV to form a point defect which is a few nm in dimension.

• A line going from the front of the crystal into inside parallel to the bottom edge of the half plane is
dislocation line.
 Edge dislocation: Slip
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cut δ

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Push the upper half of the crystal w.r.t the lower half
 Edge dislocation: Slip
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Magnitude and
direction of slip Slip Plane

Slip No Slip
δ Slip No Slip
Slip Plane

Boundary between slip and

no slip region on slip plane

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
• A dislocation line is Boundary between slip and no slip region on a slip plane. The
orientation of dislocation line is represented by tangent vector ( ̂ )
• The magnitude and direction of slip is known as Burgers vector ( ).
 Edge dislocation
• When Burger’s vector ( ) is perpendicular to the tangent vector ( ̂ ), edge dislocation is formed.

Slip
Slip No Slip
 Screw dislocation
• When Burger’s vector ( ) is parallel to the tangent vector ( ̂ ), screw dislocation is formed.

Slip No Slip
 Mixed dislocation
• When Burger’s vector ( ) and tangent vector ( ̂ ) are neither parallel nor perpendicular to each
other, mixed dislocation is formed.

Slip No Slip
 Burger’s circuit
• A closed Burger circuit in a perfect crystal fails to close when mapped around a
dislocation line. Closure failure =

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Directions and planes for Hexagonal Crystals
• A problem arises for crystals having hexagonal symmetry in that some crystallographic
equivalent directions will not have the same set of indices.
• This is circumvented by utilizing a four-axis, or Miller–Bravais, coordinate system.
• The three a1, a2, and a3 axes are all contained within a single plane (called the basal plane) and
are at 120° angles to one another. The z axis is perpendicular to this basal plane.
• Directional indices, will be denoted by four indices, as [uvtw]; by convention, the first three
indices pertain to projections along the respective a1, a2, and a3 axes in the basal plane.
Directions and planes for Hexagonal Crystals
• Directional indices, will be denoted by four indices, as [uvtw]; by convention, the first three
indices pertain to projections along the respective a1, a2, and a3 axes in the basal plane.
• Conversion from the three-index system to the four-index system,
Directions and planes for Hexagonal Crystals
 Frank Read Source
• The Frank Read Source is mechanism based on dislocation multiplication in a slip plane under shear stress.
Consider a straight dislocation in a crystal slip plane with its two ends, A and B, pinned.
• If a shear stress τ is exerted on the slip plane a force , where b is the burgers vector of the dislocation
and x is the distance between the pinning sites a and b, is exerted on the dislocation line as a result of the shear
stress.
• This force acts perpendicular to the line inducing the dislocation to lengthen and curve into an arc.
• The bending force caused by the shear stress is opposed by the line tension of the dislocation which acts on
each end of the dislocation along the direction of dislocation line away from a and b with a magnitude
of Gb2 where G is the Shear modulus.
• If the dislocation bends, the ends of the dislocation make an angle with the horizontal between a and b which
gives the line tensions acting along the ends a vertical component acting directly against the force induced by
the shear stress.
• If sufficient shear stress is applied and the dislocation bends, the vertical component from the line tensions,
which acts directly against the force caused by the shear stress, grows as the dislocation approaches a
semicircular shape.
• When the dislocation becomes a semicircle all of the line tension is acting against the bending force induced by
the shear stress because the line tension is perpendicular to the horizontal between a and b.
 Frank Read Source (Contd..)
• For the dislocation to reach this point, it is thus evident that must be satisfied and from
which we can solve for the shear stress:

• If the shear stress increases any further and the dislocation passes the semicircular equilibrium state, it will
spontaneously continue to bend and grow spiraling around the a and b pinning points until the segments
spiraling around the A and B pinning points collide and cancel.
• The process results in a dislocation loop around A and B in the slip plane which expands under continued shear
stress and also in a new dislocation line between A and B which under renewed or continued shear can continue
to generate dislocation loops in the manner just described.
• A Frank Read Loop can thus generate many dislocations in a plane in a crystal under applied stress.
• The Frank Read source mechanism explains why dislocations are primarily generated on certain slip planes;
dislocations are primarily generated in just those planes with Frank Read sources.

It is important to note that if the shear stress does not exceed and the
dislocation does not bend past the semicircular equilibrium state it will not form
a dislocation loop and simply revert to its original state.

Reference: [Link]
 Interfacial Defects
• Interfacial defects are boundaries that have two dimensions and normally separate regions of the
materials that have different crystal structures and/or crystallographic orientations.

• These imperfections include external surfaces, grain boundaries, phase boundaries, twin boundaries, and
stacking faults.

• External Surfaces

• One of the most obvious boundaries is the external surface, along which the crystal structure terminates.

• Surface atoms are not bonded to the maximum number of nearest neighbors, and are therefore in a
higher energy state than the atoms at interior positions.

• The bonds of these surface atoms that are not satisfied give rise to a surface energy, expressed in units of
energy per unit area (J/m2 or erg/cm2).
 Grain Boundaries
• Another interfacial defect, the grain boundary, was introduced as the boundary separating two small grains or
crystals having different crystallographic orientations in polycrystalline materials.
• A grain boundary is represented schematically in Figure
• Within the boundary region, which is probably just several atom distances wide, there is some atomic mismatch
in a transition from the crystalline orientation of one grain to that of an adjacent one.
•
 Formation of grain boundaries
• When a liquid is cooled to below its freezing temperature, solidification does not occur at every point in the liquid; rather, it
occurs at certain sites called nuclei, which are small crystal-like structures containing perhaps 50 to 100 atoms.
• The liquid atoms adjacent to a nucleus diffuse into the nucleus, thereby causing it to grow in size to become a small crystal, or a
crystallite, called a grain.
• Since the nuclei are randomly oriented when they are formed, the grains have random crystallographic orientations during
crystallite growth.
• As the liquid between the grains is consumed, some grains meet and obstruct each other. At the end of solidification, therefore, the
whole structure has grains with irregular shapes and orientations, as shown in Figure.
• In contrast to a single crystal, a polycrystalline material has grain boundaries where differently oriented crystals meet.
• The atoms at the grain boundaries obviously cannot follow their natural bonding habits, because the crystal orientation suddenly
changes across the boundary.
• Therefore, there are both voids at the grain boundary and stretched and broken bonds. In addition, in this region, there are
misplaced atoms that do not follow the crystalline pattern on either side of the boundary.
• Consequently, the grain boundary represents a high-energy region per atom with respect to the energy per atom within the bulk of
the grains themselves.
• The atoms can diffuse more easily along a grain boundary because (a) less bonds need to be broken due to the presence of voids
and (b) the bonds are strained and easily broken anyway.
 Grain Boundaries (Contd..)

• Various degrees of crystallographic misalignment

between adjacent grains are possible.
Figure
• When this orientation mismatch is slight, on the Demonstration of
order of a few degrees, then the term small- (or how a tilt boundary
having an angle of
low-) angle grain boundary is used. misorientation
results from an
• These boundaries can be described in terms of
alignment of edge
dislocation arrays. One simple small-angle grain dislocations.
boundary is formed when edge dislocations are
aligned in the manner of Figure. This type is called
a tilt boundary; the angle of misorientation, θ, is
also indicated in the figure.
 Twin Boundaries
• A twin boundary is a special type of grain boundary across which there is a specific mirror lattice symmetry;
that is, atoms on one side of the boundary are located in mirror-image positions of the atoms on the other side.
• The region of material between these boundaries is appropriately
termed a twin.
• Twins result from atomic displacements that are produced from
applied mechanical shear forces (mechanical twins), and also during
annealing heat treatments following deformation (annealing twins).
• Twinning occurs on a definite crystallographic plane and in a specific
direction, both of which depend on the crystal structure.
• Annealing twins are typically found in metals that have the FCC
Figure. Schematic diagram showing a
crystal structure, whereas mechanical twins are observed in BCC and twin plane or boundary and the
adjacent atom positions
HCP metals.
 Miscellaneous Interfacial Defects
• Stacking faults are found in FCC metals when there is an interruption in
the ABCABCABC . . . stacking sequence of close-packed planes.

• An interfacial energy is associated with the defects, and the its magnitude
depends on boundary type, and vary from material to material.

• Normally, the interfacial energy will be greatest for external surfaces and
least for domain walls.