Mechanical and Reaction Properties of Al/TiH2/PTFE under Quasi-Static Compression

TiH2 is introduced into Al/PTFE reaction system for the first time. In order to study the mechanical and reaction properties of Al/TiH2/PTFE composites, five kinds of mixtures with different TiH2 contents and the contrasting TiH2/PTFE mixture are prepared. The true stress-strain curves and reaction phenomena are recorded during the quasi-static compression experiments; The reaction residues are analyzed with XRD to understand the reaction mechanism. The results show that the introduction of TiH2 can significantly influence the strength of the composites; With the increasing of TiH2 content, the mechanical strength is firstly increase and then decrease; When the content is the same, the reinforcing effect of TiH2 particles on PTFE matrix is greater than that of Al. Violent reaction are observed in the four Al/TiH2/PTFE composites with the content of TiH2 below 20%, but not in TiH2/PTFE. Furthermore, compared with Al/PTFE material, special flames are found during the reaction of composites with TiH2, which become even more obvious with the increasing of TiH2 content. The material reaction mechanism denotes that the high temperature of the crack tip result in the reaction of Al and PTFE, which activates TiH2 to release hydrogen and generate TiC, resulting TiH2 to fully release its energy.