Effects of Al addition on the phase transformation and interfacial evolution in multilayer Ti-B₄C composite

The fully-dense multilayer Ti-B₄C composite doped with 6 wt% Al was fabricated via tape-casting and hot-pressing sintering at 1800 °C and under a uniaxial pressure of 30 MPa for 60 min. The effects of Al addition on the phase composition, interfacial microstructure and fracture toughness of the laminate composite were investigated. Based on the results of WDS and EDS, Al addition was proved to be effective on accelerating atom diffusion between Ti and B₄C due to the melting pool around interface where liquid Al enriched, besides, it helps to transform the interfacial bonding method of physical to metallurgical. Finally, the improvement on toughness of Al doped composite can be attributed to the strong metallurgical bonding and hybrid fracture mode of interface. Our study may provide a potential method for producing high strength and toughness multilayer metal/ceramic composites.