10.1016/j.scriptamat.2025.116974">
 

Spectral Analysis of Light Interstitial Segregation Energies in Ni: The Role of Local Cr Coordination for Boron and Carbon

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-12-2025

Abstract

Understanding interstitial segregation in chemically complex alloys requires accounting for chemical and structural heterogeneity of interfaces, motivating approaches that move beyond scalar descriptors to capture the full spatial and compositional spectra of segregation behavior. Here, we introduce a spectral segregation framework that maps distributions of segregation energies for light interstitials in Ni as a function of local Cr coordination. Boron exhibits a broad, rugged energy spectrum with significant positional flexibility whereas carbon remains confined to a narrow spectrum with minimal displacement. At the free surface, Cr-rich coordination destabilizes both interstitials (e.g., positive segregation energies), in sharp contrast to the stabilizing role of Cr at the GB. This inversion establishes a natural segregation gradient that drives interstitials away from undercoordinated internal surfaces and toward GBs. These results underscore the limitations of single-valued segregation descriptors and demonstrate how a distributional approach reveals the mechanistic origins of interstitial–interface interactions in chemically heterogeneous alloys.

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This is an Open Access preprint published by arxiv.org and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Source Publication

Scripta Materialia (ISSN 1359-6462)

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