Analysis of Precipitation Kinetics on the Basis of Particle-Size Distributions

A model for the description of precipitation kinetics is presented and applied to experimental data for the evolution of the particle-size distribution in a dilute model system (Cu-Co) upon isothermal annealing at different temperatures. For coupling nucleation kinetics and growth kinetics, the model includes a recently proposed inverse evaluation method for consistent and numerically efficient evaluation of the thermodynamics of both nucleation and growth. Using the experimental data for the evolution of the particle-size distributions, obtained at least at two different temperatures, as a reference, unique and physically reasonable values for, at least, the interface energy and the activation energies for nucleation and growth can be obtained. The sensitivity of the kinetic model fitting to precise description of the thermodynamics of the particle–matrix system and the inferiority of kinetic model fitting to average data, such as data for the mean particle radius, have been highlighted.