TY - JOUR A1 - Ahmadian, A. A1 - Scheiber, D. A1 - Zhou, X. A1 - Gault, B. A1 - Darvishi Kamachali, Reza A1 - Romaner, L. A1 - Ecker, W. A1 - Dehm, G. A1 - Liebscher, C. H. T1 - Interstitial segregation has the potential to mitigate liquid metal embrittlement in iron N2 - The embrittlement of metallic alloys by liquid metals leads to catastrophic material failure and severely impacts their structural integrity. The weakening of grain boundaries by the ingress of liquid metal and preceding segregation in the solid are thought to promote early fracture. However, the potential of balancing between the segregation of cohesion-enhancing interstitial solutes and embrittling elements inducing grain boundary decohesion is not understood. Here, we unveil the mechanisms of how boron segregation mitigates the detrimental effects of the prime embrittler, zinc, in a Σ5 [0 0 1] tilt grain boundary in α −Fe (4 at.% Al). Zinc forms nanoscale segregation patterns inducing structurally and compositionally complex grain boundary states. Ab-initio simulations reveal that boron hinders zinc segregation and compensates for the zinc induced loss in grain boundary cohesion. Our work sheds new light on how interstitial solutes intimately modify grain boundaries, thereby opening pathways to use them as dopants for preventing disastrous material failure. KW - Materials Modelling KW - Liquid Metal Embrittlement KW - Alloy Safety KW - CALPHAD KW - Microstructure Design PY - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-573576 SN - 0935-9648 IS - e2211796 PB - Wiley online library AN - OPUS4-57357 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -