Response to Comment on "Grain Boundary Decohesion by Impurity Segregation in a Nickel-Sulfur System"

by M. Yamaguchi, M. Shiga, & H. Kaburaki Science, 9 Sep 2005 We recently concluded that the strong decohesion of a nickel (Ni) grain boundary (GB) is caused by the aggregation of sulfur (S) atoms on the GB, which repel each other. We further estimated the segregation concentration using the average binding energy of S atoms. However, Geng et al. claim that the binding energy should be calculated not on average but incrementally (or sequentially). As they point out, the incremental binding energy when the GB2 1/4 monolayer is added to the GB0 4/4 monolayer is 3.45 eV/S. The occupation possibility of this arrangement is less than 1%, according to the McLean's curve, at 918 K and 25 atomic parts per million. Read more Read Comment Read original article