Interfacial reactions of zirconium and zirconium-alloy liquid metals with beryllia at elevated temperatures

Argonne National Laboratory and Integrated Thermal Sciences, Inc. are developing crucible materials for melting reactive metals. A major part of this effort involves identifying reusable materials because they would have little or no interaction with the molten metals at elevated temperatures. Sessile drop-type experiments have been performed using pure zirconium and stainless steel-zirconium alloys (e.g., HT9-15Zr) on beryllia (BeO) substrates. The system was heated in high-purity argon to about 2000°C, held for 5 minutes, and cooled to room temperature. An external video camera monitored the interfacial interaction and wetting behavior. The zirconium melted and wetted the BeO at 1600°C, far below its melting point (1855°C). Post-test examinations show beryllium and oxygen dissolving in the zirconium metal. In addition, zirconium infiltrated the BeO substrate. No third phase reaction product was present at the zirconium-beryllia interface either at the top of the substrate or in the infiltrated region. HT9-15Zr also reacted with BeO; the alloy infiltrated partially into the BeO and formed a reaction-like layer attached to the ceramic substrate at the interface with the solidified metal. The rest of the liquid metal alloy did not wet the reaction product band. The results indicate that BeO is a poor crucible for the present application, but the observed wetting and infiltration phenomena are relevant to understanding the behavior of the liquid metal-ceramic interfaces.