Strength and interfacial microstructure of Si3N4 joint brazed with amorphous Ti-Zr-Ni-Cu filler metal

In this paper, the vacuum brazing of Si3N4 ceramic was carried oat with Ti40Zr25Ni15Cu20 amorphous filler metal. The interfacial microstructure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) etc. According to the analysis, the interface reaction layer was made up of TiN abut on the ceramic and the Ti-Si, Zr-Si compounds. The influence of brazing temperature and holding time on the joint strength was also studied. The results shows that the joint strength first increased and then decreased with the increasing of halding time and brazing temperature. The joint strength was significantly affected by the thickness of the reaction layer. Under the same experimental conditions, the joint brazed with amorphous filler metal exhibits much higher strength compared with the one brazed with crystalline filler metal with the same composition. To achieve higher joint strength at relatively low temperature, it is favorable to use the amorphous filler metal than the crystalline filler metal.