CE 241

Materials Science

STRUCTURAL IMPERFECTIONS
 Imperfections or defects

Defects in materials are inevitable:

They will always form since all processes are almost always far
from equilibrium and take place at finite temperatures (> 0 K).

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 Structural Imperfections
• What types of defects arise in solids?

• Can the number and type of defects be varied and controlled?

• How do defects affect material properties?

• Are defects undesirable?

• How do point defects in ceramics differ from those in metals?

• In ceramics, how are impurities accommodated in the lattice and

how do they affect properties?

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 Imperfections or defects
• Any deviation from the perfect atomic arrangement in a crystal is said to
be an imperfection or a defect.
• Defects are commonly intentionally used to manipulate the mechanical
properties of a material.
• Adding alloying elements to a metal is one way of introducing a crystal
defect.
• Crystal imperfections have a strong influence on many properties of
crystals such as strength, electrical conductivity

• Thus, some important properties of crystals are controlled as much by

imperfections as by the nature of the host crystals:
– The conductivity of some semiconductors is due entirely to a trace amount of
chemical impurities.
– Color, luminescence of many crystals arise from impurities and imperfections
– Atomic diffusion may be accelerated enormously by impurities or
imperfections
– Mechanical and plastic properties are usually controlled by imperfections

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 "FORTUNATELY crystals are seldom, if ever, perfect."

• Real crystals are almost never perfect.

• Materials are often stronger when they have defects!
• These imperfections can be classified according to their dimensionality:

Defects in a crystal

Surface defect Volume defect

0D Point defect 1D Line defect 2D 3D
(interfacial) (bulk)
• Vacancy • Edge dislocation • Grain boundary • Void
• Interstitial • Screw dislocation • Twin boundary • Crack
• Substitutional • Tilt boundaries • Inclusion
• Schottky • Stacking faults • Precipitate
• Frenkel

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 Size ranges of defects

Electronic Atomic
point point
defect defect Interfacial defect – 2D

Line defect – 1D Bulk defect – 3D

0.01 pm 1pm 0.1nm 10nm 1µm 0.1mm 10mm 1m

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 0D – Point defects
when an atom is missing or is in an irregular place in the
lattice structure

• Point defects include:

– Self-interstitial atoms (a matrix atom in a wrong place)
– impurity atoms (an atom of a different type than the matrix
atoms)
• Substitutional
• Interstitial
– absence of a matrix atom (vacancy)

Localized disruption in regularity of the lattice

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 0D – Point defects
• Self-interstitial atom
– an extra atom that has crowded its way into an interstitial void in the
crystal structure.
– Self interstitial atoms occur only in low concentrations in metals
because they distort and highly stress the tightly packed lattice
structure.
• Vacancy
– an empty space where an atom should be, but is missing.
– common, especially at high temperatures when atoms frequently and
randomly change their positions leaving behind empty lattice sites.
– In most cases diffusion (mass transport by atomic motion) can only
occur because of vacancies.

Self-
Distortion interstitial Distortion Vacancy
of planes of planes

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0D – Point defects

In metals, a self-interstitial
defect introduces
relatively large distortions
(strain) in the surrounding
lattice since the atom is
substantially larger than
the interstitial site.

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 0D – Point defects
• Substitutional impurity atom
– an atom of a different element than the bulk atoms, which has replaced one
of the bulk atoms in the lattice.
– usually close in size (within ~15%) to the bulk atom
– e.g. Zn in brass Zn atoms with a radius of 0.133 nm replace some of the Cu
atoms, which have a radius of 0.128 nm.
• Interstitial impurity atom
– much smaller than the atoms in the bulk matrix.
– Interstitial impurity atoms fit into the open space between the bulk atoms of
the lattice structure.
– e.g. C added to Fe to make steel. C, with a radius of 0.071 nm, fit nicely in the
open spaces between the larger (0.124 nm) Fe atoms.

Substitutional Interstitial

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 0D – Point defects
Metals do not combine with metals.
They form alloys: a solution of a metal in a metal

Relatively similar
size
(bronze: Cu-Sn ;
brass: Cu-Zn)

Generally, one is
much smaller…
(steel: Fe-C)

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 0D – Point defects
• The point defects discussed so far occur in metallic structures. Defects in
ionic structures differ because of the charge neutrally requirement.
• Schottky defect
– to maintain the charge neutrality an equal number of cation and anion
vacancy
• Frenkel defect
– to maintain the charge neutrality, a cation vacancy-cation interstitial pair occur
together. The cation leaves its normal position and moves to the interstitial
site.

Schottky An anion and a

Defect cation is missing

Frenkel An anion or a cation is

Defect at an insterstitial site

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 1D – Line defects (Dislocations)
• Dislocations slide or slip of one portion of crystal system over another
as dislocations move one part of the system relative to the other.

• When dislocations pass through the whole system the system

permanently deforms.

• Dislocations are on the boundary between the regions where slip has
occurred and where it has not. On either side of the dislocation
crystalline system is essentially perfect.

• Strength and ductility of metals are controlled by dislocations:

– Movement of dislocations material deformation
– Interference with movement of dislocations material strengthened

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 1D - Types of dislocations: Edge and Screw
• Edge Dislocations:
– extra half-plane of atoms inserted in a crystal structure
Burger’s vector, b:
– b ⊥ to dislocation line measure of lattice
• Screw Dislocations: distortion
– spiral planar ramp resulting from shear deformation
– b || to dislocation line

4 4

13
 1D – Line defects (Dislocations)
• Formation of a step on the surface of a crystal due to:
Shear
Stress τ

Edge Dislocation
Direction Dislocation moves in
of motion
the direction of
applied shear stress
Shear
Stress τ

Shear
Stress τ

Direction of Screw Dislocation

dislocation
motion Dislocation motion is
perpendicular to
Shear applied shear stress
Stress τ

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 1D – Line defects (Dislocations)
• Metals: Disl. motion easier + + + + + + + +
– non-directional bonding + + + + + + + +
– close-packed directions for slip. + + + + + + + +
electron cloud ion cores

• Covalent Ceramics (Si, diamond):

Disl. motion hard
– directional (angular) bonding

+ - + - + - +
• Ionic Ceramics (NaCl): Disl.
- + - + - + -
motion hard
– need to avoid (+) and (-) neighbors. + - + - + - +

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 2D – Interfacial defects
• interfaces between homogeneous regions of the material
• Caused during solidification or mechanical or thermal treatment of
material
• Effects mechanical properties, electrical resistance and corrosion
resistance
• Includes:
– Stacking faults and twin boundaries
– Grain Boundaries in polycrystals
– Free surfaces (interface btw liquids and gases)
– Interphase boundaries
• Similar to grain boundaries both in shape and behavior. However, in these systems
there are two or more materials having different crystal structures.
• Multiphase materials having a change in physical and/or chemical characteristics
will also have interphase boundaries. (ie: ice-water)

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 2D – Interfacial defects
• Surface of a crystalline material

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 2D – Interfacial defects
• Twin boundary

• Tilt boundary
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 2D – Interfacial defects
• Grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials
Brass

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 3D – Volume (Bulk) defects
• occur on a much bigger scale than the rest of the crystal defects
• they do affect the movement of dislocations
• introduced during the production of the material or during its fabrication.
• presence of bulk defects such as cracks, notches, holes results in brittle materials
which break at very low stresses without showing large deformations.

• Voids
– regions where there are a large number of atoms missing from the lattice.
– voids can occur for a number of reasons.
• due to air bubbles becoming trapped when a material solidifies porosity
• due to the shrinkage of a material as it solidifies cavitation.
• Precipitates, inclusions
– occurs when impurity atoms cluster together to form small regions of a different phase
– The term ‘phase’ refers to that region of space occupied by a physically homogeneous
material.

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Bulk defects and stress concentration

Without hole

With hole
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