Thermodynamics of nano-scale grain growth

According to an empirical relation derived from Gibbs’ adsorption equation and McLean's grain boundary (GB) segregation model, GB energy reduces upon grain growth in nano-scale alloys. Thermodynamically, it has been proved that, for alloy with strong segregation tendency, reducing the GB energy inhibits grain growth; once grain growth is stopped with saturated GBs, the GB energy corresponds to zero.