Kinetic constants of abnormal grain growth in nanocrystalline nickel

The grain growth in nanocrystalline nickel with a purity of 99.5 at % during non-isothermal annealing was experimentally investigated using differential scanning calorimetry and transmission electron microscopy. Nanocrystalline nickel was prepared by electrodeposition and had an average grain size of approximately 20 nm. It was shown that, at a temperature corresponding to the calorimetric signal peak, abnormal grain growth occurs with the formation of a bimodal grain microstructure. Calorimeters signals were processed within the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami formalism. This made it possible to determine the exponent of the corresponding equation, the frequency factor, and the activation energy of the grain growth, which was found to be equal to the activation energy of the vacancy migration. The reasons for the abnormal grain growth in nanocrystalline nickel were discussed.