Particle Coarsening in the Solid State

PARTICLE growth in supersaturated solutions has stimulated much theoretical and experimental work, but less attention has been paid to the subsequent reaction of particle coarsening in a matrix of solute content in local equilibrium with small particles. The driving force for coarsening is the decrease in total energy accompanying a reduction of particle/matrix interfacial area. Coarsening is controlled either by the diffusion of solute down the concentration gradient between neighbouring particles of differing size, or by the difficulty of assimilating solute atoms at the interface of a growing particle.