Invited Lecture
History of diffusion – pioneers and landmarks

Continuum theory of diffusion started in 1855 with Fick’s equations. The theory of Brownian motion by Einstein and Smoluchowski provided 1905 another cornerstone of diffusion and bridged the gap between mechanics and thermodynamics. It was verified by the French Nobel laureate Perrin.

Solid-state diffusion began 1896 with experiments of gold diffusion in lead by Sir Roberts-Austen. In the 1920ies van Hevesy studied self-diffusion in lead with radiothorium. The Russian and German scientists Frenkel and Schottky suggested point defects as diffusion vehicles. This was reinforced by the American Kirkendall. The use of artificial radioisotopes in diffusion studies pushed the accuracy to a high level. The Argonne group around Peterson, Mundy and Rothman set new standards. The author’s group at Münster extended the temperature range in the Arrhenius-diagram. Theoretical progress in correlation effects came from the American Nobel laureate Bardeen, another American Manning and the British Lidiard.

Grain-boundary diffusion studies were initiated 1951 by the Americans Turnbull and Fisher. Later grain-boundary diffusion was/is investigated by the Hungarian group around Beke, the Russian group of Bokstein, the French group of Bernardini, the Münster group members Divinski and Herzig, and the Rabkin group in Israel.

Interdiffusion in alloys uses the analysis proposed by the Austrian Boltzmann and the Japanese Matano. Interdiffusion in higher component alloys as well as multiphase and reaction diffusion studies are/were topics of the Dutch group of van Loo, the American group around Sohn in Florida, and of Paul from India. The Australian theoreticians Murch and Belova contributed much to interdiffusion in alloys and compounds. Kozubski from Poland performs/ed Monte Carlo simulations of diffusion in intermetallics. The American group around Liu models/ed thermodynamic and diffusion properties.