Mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of Al/SiC composites

Al/SiC composites, which consisted of 20 vol% SiC and 80 vol% Al, were fabricated by vacuum hot pressing sintering to study the mechanical properties and corrosion behavior. New phases Al4C3, Al4SiC4 and Al1.7Si0.15O2.85 appeared in the sintering resultant. It was found that Si had beneficial effect to reduce the production of Al4C3. 0.1 mol/L NaOH was applied to corrod the Al/SiC composites at room temperature. The relationship of weight loss and corrosion time was deduced agreeing with the kinetic equation y = 0.08044x − 0.0117. The element diffusion in connection layer was analyzed by an electronic probe microanalyzer (EPMA).