Grain boundary

In materials science, a grain boundary is the interface between two differently oriented grains, or crystallites, of the same phase in a polycrystalline material. Grain boundaries are two-dimensional defects in the crystal structure, and tend to decrease the electrical and thermal conductivity of the material. Most grain boundaries are preferred sites for the onset of corrosion and for the precipitation of new phases from the solid. They are also important to many of the mechanisms of creep. On the other hand, grain boundaries disrupt the motion of dislocations through a material, so reducing crystallite size is a common way to improve mechanical strength, as described by the Hall–Petch relationship.

High and low angle boundaries

It is convenient to categorize grain boundaries according to the extent of misorientation between the two grains. Low-angle grain boundaries (LAGB) or subgrain boundaries are those with a misorientation less than about 15 degrees. Generally speaking they are composed of an array of dislocations and their properties and structure are a function of the misorientation. In contrast the properties of high-angle grain boundaries, whose misorientation is greater than about 15 degrees (the transition angle varies from 10 to 15 degrees depending on the material), are normally found to be independent of the misorientation. However, there are 'special boundaries' at particular orientations whose interfacial energies are markedly lower than those of general high-angle grain boundaries.