Quantitative misorientation characteristics of interphase boundaries in composites

Specific crystallographic correlations between neighbouring grains in composites were established by the use of selected area electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope. However, it was the development of orientation mapping techniques that made it possible to obtain a quantitative description of the distribution of boundaries between the grains of both the same phase and different phases. This study shows that orientation topography measurements made by electron backscatter diffraction in the scanning electron microscope allowed determination of the crystallographic relationships between grains of different phases. An alumina-based composite with a content of 10 vol% tungsten carbide was chosen for investigations. Misorientation distribution functions were calculated to describe the distribution density of misorientations with respect to the nearest neighbouring measured point located in the grain of the second phase. The analysis of misorientation distribution functions permitted the evaluation of preferences for some special crystallographic correlations between the grains of composite matrix and inclusions as well as shares of interphase boundaries characterized by those correlations.