Materials Science and Engineering

Developing nacre-inspired laminate-reticular 2024Al/B4C composites with high damage resistance by adjusting compositional wettability

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  • Yang WANG, Qiang LIU, Biao ZHANG, Hao-qian ZHANG, Yi-cheng JIN, Zhao-xin ZHONG, Jian YE, Yu-han REN, Feng YE, Wen WANG
Institute for Advanced Ceramics, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China

Online published: 2022-04-25

Abstract

To address the issue that B4C ceramics are difficult to be wetted by aluminum metals in the composites, TiB2 was introduced via an in-situ reaction between TiH2 and B4C to regulate their wettability and interfacial bonding. By pressure infiltration of the molten alloy into the freeze-cast porous ceramic skeleton, the 2024Al/B4C-TiB2 composites with a laminate-reticular hierarchical structure were produced. Compared with 2024Al/B4C composite, adding initial TiH2 improved the flexural strength and valid fracture toughness from (484±27) to (665±30) MPa and (19.3±1.5) to (32.7±1.8) MPa·m1/2, respectively. This exceptional damage resistance ability was derived from multiple extrinsic toughening mechanisms including uncracked-ligament bridging, crack branching, crack propagation and crack blunting, and more importantly, the fracture model transition from single to multiple crack propagation. This strategy opens a pathway for improving the wettability and interfacial bonding of Al/B4C composites, and thus produces nacre-inspired materials with optimized damage tolerance.

Cite this article

Yang WANG, Qiang LIU, Biao ZHANG, Hao-qian ZHANG, Yi-cheng JIN, Zhao-xin ZHONG, Jian YE, Yu-han REN, Feng YE, Wen WANG . Developing nacre-inspired laminate-reticular 2024Al/B4C composites with high damage resistance by adjusting compositional wettability[J]. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 2022 , 32(4) : 1105 -1118 . DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(22)65859-X

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