Sintering Behavior and Mechanical Properties of NiAl, Al2O3, and NiAl-Al2O3 Composites

It is commonly known that the properties of sintered materials are strongly related to technological conditions of the densification process. This paper shows the sintering behavior of a NiAl-Al2O3 composite, and its individual components sintered separately. Each kind of material was processed via the powder metallurgy route (hot pressing). The progress of sintering at different stages of the process was tested. Changes in the microstructure were examined using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Metal-ceramics interface was clean and no additional phases were detected. Correlation between the microstructure, density, and mechanical properties of the sintered materials was analyzed. The values of elastic constants of NiAl/Al2O3 were close to intermetallic ones due to the volume content of the NiAl phase particularly at low densities, where small alumina particles had no impact on the composite's stiffness. The influence of the external pressure of 30 MPa seemed crucial for obtaining satisfactory stiffness for three kinds of the studied materials which were characterized by a high dense microstructure with a low number of isolated spherical pores.