Effect of Vacancy Defect Content on the Interdiffusion of Cubic and Hexagonal SiC/Al Interfaces: A Molecular Dynamics Study

The mechanical properties of ceramic-metal nanocomposites are greatly affected by the equivalent properties of the interface of materials. In this study, the effect of vacancy in SiC on the interdiffusion of SiC/Al interfaces is investigated using the molecular dynamics method. The SiC reinforcements exist in the whisker and particulate forms. To this end, cubic and hexagonal SiC lattice polytypes with the Si- and C-terminated interfaces with Al are considered as two samples of metal matrix nanocomposites. The average main and cross-interdiffusion coefficients are determined using a single diffusion couple for each system. The interdiffusion coefficients of the defective SiC/Al are compared with the defect-free SiC/Al system. The effects of temperature, annealing time, and vacancy on the self- and interdiffusion coefficients are investigated. It is found that the interdiffusion of Al in SiC increases with the increase in temperature, annealing time, and vacancy.