Abstract

A metal-ceramic multilayer composite composed of Zr and ZrC films was magnetron sputter deposited and annealed at 1325 °C to demonstrate its ability to phase transform into a single phase, substoichiometric ultrahigh temperature ceramic carbide. The pre-annealed laminate microstructure comprised columnar grains for both the Zr and ZrC layers, common to thin film deposition. Upon annealing, the diffusion of carbon facilitated the precipitation of multiple equiaxed carbide grains that consumed the former Zr layers. As this carbon diffused from ZrC, it resulted in the carbide undergoing a lattice contraction where the elastic strains facilitated a decohesion between the carbide grain boundaries. This decohesion is shown to be mitigated by increasing the ratio of the initial ZrC layer-to-Zr layer thicknesses. Finally, oxygen, found to be a minor impurity in the ethylene hydrocarbon gas used to reactively deposit ZrC, facilitated irregular zirconia precipitation within the evolving microstructure during the anneal.

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