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Updated: May 7, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Disordering and grain boundaries of (Ni,Fe)Cr2O4 spinels from atomistic calculations
Alain Chartier1, Bogdan Golovchuk, Stéphane Gossé
1CEA, DEN, DPC, SCCME, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France.
Abstract:
A novel empirical potential has been developed to evaluate the thermodynamic stability of Ni(1-x)Fe(x)Cr2O4 spinels. The simulations confirm the hypothesis that the NiCr2O4-FeCr2O4 pseudo-binary has normal structure spinel up to 1000 K and stabilizes as a solid solution. However, the disordering energy (normal to inverse spinel) is found higher for FeCr2O4 than for NiCr2O4 spinel. The formation energies of tilt, twist, and random grain boundaries have been calculated in pure NiCr2O4 and FeCr2O4. The same behavior has been found for both spinels. Detail analysis of the grain boundaries structure shows that the cation coordination number is a key parameter for the stability of the grain boundaries. With this criterion, we evidenced that the structural and energetic differences are caused only by nickel and iron cations.
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