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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Metal-silicate Partitioning at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Methods and a Protocol to Suppress Highly Siderophile Element Inclusions
Published on: June 13, 2015
Embrittlement of metal by solute segregation-induced amorphization
Hsiu-Pin Chen1, Rajiv K Kalia, Efthimios Kaxiras
1Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0242, USA.
Abstract:
Impurities segregated to grain boundaries of a material essentially alter its fracture behavior. A prime example is sulfur segregation-induced embrittlement of nickel, where an observed relation between sulfur-induced amorphization of grain boundaries and embrittlement remains unexplained. Here, 48x10(6)-atom reactive-force-field molecular dynamics simulations provide the missing link. Namely, an order-of-magnitude reduction of grain-boundary shear strength due to amorphization, combined with tensile-strength reduction, allows the crack tip to always find an easy propagation path.
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