Kirkendall Effect: Dramatic History of Discovery and Developments

Abstract

The importance and generality of Kirkendall discovery, which opened new area in diffusion science, have been discussed. The developments of Kirkendall’s idea for sub-surface (SS) and grain boundary (GB) interdiffusion have been considered and applied for the advanced structural materials, such as thin films and nano-composites. The kinetics and mechanisms of SS and GB Kirkendall effects have been analyzed theoretically and studied experimentally.