Combining thermodynamic concepts with first-principles calculations, we study the solubility of oxygen atoms (O) in nickel. In our approach, we include the possible formation of oxygen clusters (O n) and vacancies-oxygens clusters (VO n and V 2 O n). We show that the vacancy-oxygens interactions are strong (approximately 1 eV) and would induce a large concentration of clusters in fcc-Ni. The use of a thermodynamic model, within a grand canonical approach, allows calculation of the vacancy concentration, including these VO n clusters, as a function of O concentration, for different temperatures. We find that at low temperatures (below 600 K), a small content of oxygen (in appm) strongly modifies the vacancy concentration, increasing the total vacancy concentration in the metal by many orders of magnitude more than the thermal vacancy concentration. The vacancy concentration is thus directly controlled by the oxygen content in the metal. At high temperatures, the effect is reduced, becoming negligible near the melting point. These results show the strong impact of interstitial atoms on the vacancy concentration. The influence of the vacancy formation energy is also discussed.

This work is a first-principles study of the insertion and diffusivity of oxygen in the γ-TiAl L1 0 system. Five interstitial positions were identified as stable. One, however, the 2h site a pyramid composed of a Ti square topped by an Al atom, was found more stable than the others. The oxygen interactions with the TiAl system were thus studied and analyzed in detail using vibrational, elastic and electronic properties. The results show that the O atom prefers to be surrounded by Ti atoms and tries to minimize the number of bonds with aluminum. The diffusion mechanism is subsequently studied at the atomic scale, by analyzing displacements between stable interstitial sites. The oxygen diffusivity is found to be anisotropic and the components in the x and z direction, D x and D z , are then calculated and compared with those of O diffusion into other Ti-Al alloys. The analysis of results shows two effects. First, the stability of sites is related to the number of O-Al bonds, the fewer there are, the more stable the site is, and second, the diffusion is faster when the content of interstitial sites composed of many Ti atoms is low.