Institute of Metals Division - Surface Effects in the Slip and Twinning of Metal Monocrystals

S URFACE effects in the cleavage of brittle crystals have been known for some oftime,1, 2 but our knowledge of surface effects in the plastic deformation of crystals is of relatively recent origin. In 1936, Roscoe9 eported his observations comparing oxidized and clean cadmium crystals. He found that cadmium crystals 1/2 mm in diam when covered by an oxide film less than 1200 atoms thick had critical shear stresses about twice those for clean crystals. This effect is anomalous in that it cannot be caused by the inherent shear strength of a normal oxide film. Either an interaction between the film and the crystal causes the large increase in strength, or the oxide film has an abnormal mechanical strength. Several authors since Roscoe have studied surface effects in crystal plasticity. A complete review of the literature will not be presented, but most of the results may be summarized as follows: 1—The critical shear stress for slip is increased markedly by very thin oxide films on zinc4 and cadmium crystals;" ' also, the entire stress-strain curve is raised by an oxide coating;3,4 both effects increase with decreasing specimen radius. 2—Surface active substances such as oleic acid destroy the hardening effect of oxide films.4, 6-8 The time required for the reduction of the hardening effect to begin increases with the viscosity of the solvent4~ 3—There has been dispute in recent years about the effects of surface active substances themselves on plastic deformation. Rehbinder, Lichtmann, and Maslenikov9 state that surface active substances reduce the strength of metal monocrystals markedly and increase the number of slip lines per unit length at a given strain. The effect varies with orientation for tin crystals being smallest for x, = 0, largest for x, = 45", and intermediate as x, + 90°.10 Several workers claim to have disproved the results of Rehbinder')"." but Rehbinder and Lichtmann9 have defended themselves and Masing with his collaborators" has confirmed some of Rehbinder's results. 4—Immersion of metal specimens in electrolytes such as sodium chloride reduces their strength12,13' and subsequent cathodic polarization increases the strength reduction. For noble metals, the strength reduction occurs for both anodic and cathodic polarization," increasing with increasing polarizing voltage. 5—Electroplated copper coatings effect the creep rates of zinc monocrystals. Poly crystals are not affected." 6—Immersion in dilute acid destroys the hardening effect of an hydroxide film. When an acid solution is applied to a steadily creeping crystal, the creep rate jumps to a very high value and then drops gradually to a steady value which is higher than the initial steady rate.*' " If the hydroxide film to be removed is very thin (about 100A thick), the creep rate does not change measurably, but a small rapid strain-increment is observed when dilute acid is applied." 7—Crystal plasticity depends on specimen dimensions. This was observed by Lichtmann and Ven-stroml" for monocrystalline tin and by Andrade and Kennedy" for polycrystalline lead. 8—Immerson of copper crystals in mercury has no effect on their stress-strain curves.'" 9—Bombardment of creeping cadmium crystals with a particles which penetrate the surface to only 0.005 mm may increase their creep rates as much as five times.''' The experiments which will be described in this paper pertain to: (a) the effect of a crystal's shape on its plastic deformation, and (b) the effect of metallic surface films on plastic deformation. For the work pertaining to (a), crystals of zinc, tin, and lead were grown which had various shapes. These were tested in simple tension. Macroscopic rotations about the tension axis which are unpredicted by the classical theory of slip were observed, and serrated edges were observed in tin crystals. For the work pertaining to (b), the effects of evaporated and electrodeposited films of copper, nickel, gold, and zinc on the mechanical properties of zinc, tin, and lead crystals were determined. The films influenced both slip and twinning of the crystals in creep and tensile tests. Experimental Details Chemically pure zinc, tin, and lead were used in this investigation. The zinc was 99.999t pct pure;