Sentences with phrase «liquid metal embrittlement»

A team of researchers found that randomly selected, high - angle, general grain boundaries in a nickel - bismuth (Ni - Bi) polycrystalline alloy can undergo interfacial reconstruction to form ordered superstructures, a discovery that enriches the theories and fundamental understandings of both grain boundary segregation and liquid metal embrittlement in physical metallurgy.

Specific to this nickel - bismuth system, such interfacial superstructures are the root cause of a mysterious phenomenon called «liquid metal embrittlement,» wherein a normally ductile nickel metal or nickel - based alloy can fail catastrophically in an extremely brittle manner in contact with a bismuth - based liquid metal.

In that earlier work, researchers discovered this bilayer interfacial phase that is responsible for the mysterious liquid metal embrittlement in nickel - bismuth, but the exact atomic structures of the bilayers had not been determined at that time.