DIKUL - logo
E-resources
Peer reviewed Open access
  • Colossal grain growth yield...
    Jin, Sunghwan; Huang, Ming; Kwon, Youngwoo; Zhang, Leining; Li, Bao-Wen; Oh, Sangjun; Dong, Jichen; Luo, Da; Biswal, Mandakini; Cunning, Benjamin V; Bakharev, Pavel V; Moon, Inyong; Yoo, Won Jong; Camacho-Mojica, Dulce C; Kim, Yong-Jin; Lee, Sun Hwa; Wang, Bin; Seong, Won Kyung; Saxena, Manav; Ding, Feng; Shin, Hyung-Joon; Ruoff, Rodney S

    Science, 11/2018, Volume: 362, Issue: 6418
    Journal Article

    Single-crystal metals have distinctive properties owing to the absence of grain boundaries and strong anisotropy. Commercial single-crystal metals are usually synthesized by bulk crystal growth or by deposition of thin films onto substrates, and they are expensive and small. We prepared extremely large single-crystal metal foils by "contact-free annealing" from commercial polycrystalline foils. The colossal grain growth (up to 32 square centimeters) is achieved by minimizing contact stresses, resulting in a preferred in-plane and out-of-plane crystal orientation, and is driven by surface energy minimization during the rotation of the crystal lattice followed by "consumption" of neighboring grains. Industrial-scale production of single-crystal metal foils is possible as a result of this discovery.