High temperature solid-liquid interactions in metal-ceramic brazing: a critical review

Solid-liquid interactions in metal-ceramic systems are extremely important in high temperature brazing processes. These interfacial phenomena are reviewed here, from both the thermodynamic and microstructural viewpoints. At high temperature, the wetting characteristics and the adhesion properties of the joints are strongly related to the high atomic mobility of the different phases, giving rise to different phenomena, ranging from the dissolution of the ceramic in the liquid phase, reactions, formation of new phases and reprecipitation at the solid-liquid interface. The role phase diagrams in guiding the choice of the filler alloys composition and to optimize the brazing procedures is emphasized. In particular, it is shown that the computation of new diagrams and the critical use of the existing ones is essential to understand how to suppress the substrate dissolution and to interpret the evolution of the system. Experimental data are presented and discussed concerning the interactions between liquid metals with early-transition-metal diborides (TiB2, ZrB2, HfB2) as a typical example involving the joining of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramics (UHTCs). Overall, these studies represent the basic step linking the chemical and structural information to the design of industrial processes involving a liquid phase at high temperature, such as the production of metal-ceramic joints or composite materials to be used in highly demanding applications.