Thermodynamic and kinetic study of diffusion paths in the system Cu-Fe-Ni

An understanding and modeling of diffusion paths in ternary systems requires a combined thermodynamic and diffusion kinetic approach. The driving force for the intrinsic diffusion of each component is the gradient of the chemical potential (or activity) which can be calculated from the concentration profile if the thermodynamic properties of the system are known. For studying the diffusion behavior in ternary metallic systems, the Cu-Fe-Ni-system was chosen because of its experimental and thermodynamic simplicity. Concentration profiles and diffusion paths in single-phase areas and across an a/ß interface were studied experimentally at 1000 °C using the diffusion couple technique. Coefficients for interdiffusion and tracer diffusion have been calculated at the intersection points of two independent diffusion paths with a common composition. A concentration dependence for the tracer diffusion coefficients for each component was calculated and found to be consistent with the literature data in the binary Cu-Ni and Fe-Ni systems. The calculated vacancy flux in the couples was consistent with the experimentally observed marker shift.