Interfacial phenomena between liquid Si-rich Si-Zr Alloys and Glassy Carbon

To succeed in the design and optimization of liquid-assisted processes such as reactive infiltration for the fabrication of tailored refractory SiC/ZrSi₂ composites, the interfacial phenomena that occur when Si-rich Si-Zr alloys are in contact with glassy carbon (GC) were investigated for the first time by the sessile drop method at T = 1450 °C. Specifically, two different Si-rich Si-Zr alloys were selected, and the obtained results in terms of wettability, spreading kinetics, reactivity, and developed interface microstructures were compared with experimental observations that were previously obtained for the liquid Si-rich, Si-Zr, near-eutectic composition (i.e., Si-10 at.%Zr) that was processed under the same operating conditions. The increase of the Si content only weakly affected the overall phenomena that were observed at the interface. From the practical point of view, this means that even Si-Zr alloys with a higher Si content, with respect to the near eutectic alloy, may be potentially used as infiltrant materials.