The effect of Ag, Pb and Bi impurities on grain boundary sliding and intergranular decohesion in Copper

We investigate the changes in grain boundary sliding (GBS) and intergranular decohesion in copper (Cu), due to the inclusion of bismuth (Bi), lead (Pb) and silver (Ag) substitutional impurity atoms at a $\Sigma$5 (0 1 2) symmetric tilt grain boundary (GB), using a first-principles concurrent multiscale approach. We first study the segregation behavior of the impurities by determining the impurity segregation energy in the vicinity of the GB. We find that the energetically preferred sites are on the GB plane. We investigate the intergranular decohesion of Cu by Bi and Pb impurities and compare this to the effect of Ag impurities by considering the work of separation, $W_s$ and the tensile st…