A multi-technique investigation of sulfur grain boundary segregation in nickel

The grain boundary segregation (GBS) of sulfur in nickel was studied using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS), and a linear correlation between the two techniques was demonstrated. The kinetics and thermodynamic parameters of sulfur GBS were determined. The discrepancy between the AES/WDS results obtained here and those from a previous study on the same material undertaken using secondary ion mass spectroscopy was interpreted in terms of the selection of grain boundary type by the sample preparation method. (c) 2013 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.