Knowledge of the phase diagram is essential when one seeks to prepare a material with specific properties. It is important to know the stability of the various phases that can be developed in the system and to characterize the transition mechanisms between these various states. Phase diagrams and size effects have an important role to play in pro-blems such as structural hardening, where the shape of the precipitates depends greatly on the competition between elastic energy and interface energy. In the case of embrittlement by precipitation along the grain boundaries, the precipitates of a non-miscible chemical element with a very different atomic radius from those of the matrix atoms migrate to the boundaries, and through the size effect, embrittle the latter.
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