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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsDanny C. Halverson, Aleksander J. Pyzik, Ilhan A. Aksay
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Hard, tough, lightweight boron-carbide-reactive metal composites, particularly boron-carbide-aluminum composites, are produced. These composites have compositions with a plurality of phases. A method is provided, including the steps of wetting and reacting the starting materials, by which the microstructures in the resulting composites can be controllably selected. Starting compositions, reaction temperatures, reaction times, and reaction atmospheres are parameters for controlling the process and resulting compositions. The ceramic phases are homogeneously distributed in the metal phases and adhesive forces at ceramic-metal interfaces are maximized. An initial consolidation step is used to achieve fully dense composites. Microstructures of boron-carbide-aluminum cermets have been produced with modulus of rupture exceeding 110 ksi and fracture toughness exceeding 12 ksi.sqroot.in. These composites and methods can be used to form a variety of structural elements.
A composition of matter, comprising a boron-carbide-aluminum composite with a tailored microstructure having at least four of any of the following phases:
A composition containing boron, carbon, and aluminum, and exhibiting a X-ray diffraction pattern shown in Table I.
A composition of matter comprising a composite of boron-carbide and a metal reactive with boron-carbide, and having a plurality of ceramic phases homogeneously distributed in metal phases, said metal being selected from the group consisting of Al, As, Ba, Be, Ca, Co, Cr, Fe, Hf, Ir, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Ni, Os, Pd, Pt, Pu, Re, Rh, Ru, Sc, Si, Sr, Ta, Tc, Th, Ti, U, V, W, Y, and Zr, and alloys thereof, and compounds thereof which are reduced to the metallic form during processing.
A method for producing a boron-carbide-reactive metal composite, comprising:
A method for consolidating boron-carbide and aluminum particles, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.