A First Principles Study of Zirconium Grain Boundaries

TL;DR

This study uses first-principles density functional theory to analyze the structural and energetic properties of various zirconium grain boundaries, revealing correlations between boundary structure, energetics, and atomic perturbations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive first-principles analysis of zirconium grain boundaries, including structural, energetic, and volumetric properties, with data publicly available for future research.

Findings

Higher grain boundary excess volumes correlate with higher energies.

Twist grain boundaries have similar properties, while symmetric tilt boundaries vary more.

All five dimensions of grain boundary space influence properties like work of separation.

Abstract

We present the results of first-principles calculations of selected structural and thermodynamic properties of a set of grain boundaries (GBs) in zirconium, spanning a range of misorientation angles and boundary planes. We performed plane-wave density functional theory calculations on low-sigma grain boundaries - five symmetric tilt GBs (STGBs) and three twist GBs; all with misorientation axes about [0001] and in optimised microscopic configurations - to gain insight into the associated atomistic structures. From studying the interface energetics, we found that higher GB excess volumes tended to be associated with higher GB energies. Furthermore, we examined how the interplanar spacing, volume per atom, and local atomic coordination at the GB deviated from equivalent quantities in bulk. We also defined a grain boundary width according to a threshold value of volume per atom, allowing us to rank the GBs by their relative thickness. We found the twist GBs to exhibit similar energetic and structural properties, whereas the STGBs demonstrated more variation. Our comprehensive analysis demonstrates how all five dimensions of GB space are crucial in determining properties such as the work of ideal separation and the length scale over which atoms are perturbed by the presence of the GB. So that our results can be useful for further investigations, we have published our data to a public repository (Zenodo). This data includes the optimised and initial structures, in addition to the computed interface energetics and structural properties.