Direct observation of thermal effect appearance during grain boundaries complete wetting transition in copperbismuth system
Grain boundary wetting process takes place during the contact of solid metal phase with the metal melt. The liquid bismuth network formation along grain boundaries (GB) connected with wetting process was investigated in copper polycrystalline samples. The endothermic thermal effect in the temperature range close to complete GBs wetting transition temperature for Cu-Bi system was observed. Thermal effect size of GB wetting per mol of copper passed into bismuth melt during process of forming wetting GB channels was characterized as 21-23 kJ/mol.