The kirkendall-frenkel effect in aluminium composites with nickel aluminides particles
Anita Olszówka - Myalska Politechnika Śląska, Katedra Nauki o Materiałach, ul. Krasińskiego 8, 40-019 Katowice
Annals 3 No. 6, 2003 pages 88-91
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abstract The purpose of the paper presented was to evaluate, by means of SEM, the influence of in situ formation of Al-Ni particles on the possibility of occurring the Kirkendall-Frenkel effect aluminium matrix composites produced by powder metallurgy and casting technologies. The PM method used to produce the composites consisted in two-stage, uniaxial pressing of an aluminium and nickel powders mixture, in a vacuum. In the materials, for which the pressing temperature was 460÷550ºC, presence of pores of a characteristic regular shape was found by SEM method. The pores were present in the matrix, in a direct neighbourhood of aluminide particles (Figs. 2, 3). Their morphology was different than that of the pores formed under the same conditions during hot pressing of a pure Al powder, or the one of pores in the pressed mixtures of powders which do not interact, e.g. Al-SiC and Al-Al2O3. Porosity with a morphology of this type is called Kirkendall-Frenkel porosity in the literature [8-10]. This type of porosity was not found (Fig. 4) in composites from the same mixtures of aluminium and nickel powders a temperature in which the matrix was highly ductie (600÷640ºC). To obtain composites by a casting method, suspension of nickel powder in melted aluminium was used, which was later cast into graphite moulds. Also, the SEM investigation revealed discontinuity of the material structure (Fig. 5) with a morphology similar to the one observed in some composites pressed at a temperature of 460÷550ºC. The Kirkendall-Frenkel effect in the examined cast composite can be attributed to diffusion during solidification and cooling of the ingot, which diffusion takes place between the matrix alloy (Al-Ni) and particles with a nickel concentration higher than in the corresponding Al3Ni phase. Key words: matrix composites, intermetallics, diffusion