Wetting and interfacial behavior of molten Al-Si alloys on SiC monocrystal substrates: effects of Cu or Zn addition and Pd ion implantation

C-terminated 6H-SiC (0001) single crystal substrates implanted with Pd ions with an energy of 20 keV and three fluences of 5 x 10(15), 5 x 10(16) and 5 x 10(17) ions/cm(2) at room temperature. The wetting experiments of SiC by molten Al-10Si, Al-10Si-4Cu and Al-10Si-10Zn were performed by using the sessile drop method in a high vacuum at 1323 K to determine the effects of the third element (Cu and Zn) addition and Pd ion implantation on the wettability of Al-10Si/SiC system. The experimental results showed that the wettability of Al-10Si/SiC system can be improved significantly by adding the 4% Cu with the final contact angle decreasing from similar to 60A degrees to similar to 40A degrees. The final contact angle of Al-10Si/SiC system decreased sharply from similar to 60A degrees to similar to 26A degrees after the addition of 10% Zn, which can be mainly derived from the evaporation behavior of Zn at the interface. The spreading time for reaching the equilibrium or slow spreading stage of the three Al-10Si(- 4Cu, - 10Zn)/SiC systems was prolonged more or less with the increase of Pd implantation dose, which can be mainly attributed to the variation of interfacial interactions between drops and Pd-implanted SiC substrates. Moreover, the final contact angles of Al-10Si/SiC and Al-10Si-4Cu/SiC systems decreased while that of Al-10Si-10Zn/SiC system almost kept constant with increasing the Pd implantation dose.