Transmission electron microscopy observations on phase transformations during aluminium/mullite composites formation by gas pressure infiltration

The porous ceramic preforms were manufactured using the powder metallurgy technique. First, the start-up material (halloysite with the addition of carbon fibres as the pore-forming agent) was slowly heated to 800 °C and then sintered at 1300 °C. Degradation of the carbon fibres enabled the open canals to form. At the end of the sintering process, the porous ceramic material consisting mainly of two phases (mullite and cristobalite) was formed, without any residual carbon content. During infiltration, the liquid metal filled the empty spaces (pores) effectively and formed the three-dimensional network of metal in the ceramic. The cristobalite was almost entirely decomposed. In the areas of its previous occurrence, there are new pores, only in the ceramic grains. The mullite, which was formed from halloysite during annealing, crystallized in the Pbam orthorhombic space group, with the (3Al2O3·2SiO2) stoichiometric composition. The mullite structure does not change during the infiltration. The composite components are tightly connected. A transition zone between the ceramics and the metal, having the thickness of about 200 nm, was formed. The nanocrystalline zone, identified as γ-Al2O3, was formed by diffusing the product of the cristobalite decomposition into the aluminium alloy matrix. There is an additional, new phase, identified as (Mg,Si)Al2O4 in the outer parts of the transition zone.