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Non-Equilibrium Wetting at Aluminium-Sapphire Interfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2011

George Levi and
Wayne D. Kaplan
George Levi
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Engineering Technion-Israel Institute of Technology 32000 Haifa, Israel
Wayne D. Kaplan
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Engineering Technion-Israel Institute of Technology 32000 Haifa, Israel
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Abstract

Under most experimental conditions, the wetting of Al2O3 by liquid Al is a non-equilibrium phenomenon characterised by the continuous oxidation of Al. While the effect of oxygen at the liquid Al-vapour interface appears to be well understood, less is known about the influence of oxygen at the liquid Al-sapphire interface, due to a lack of microstructural evidence. Sessile drop experiments of liquid Al on sapphire (α-Al2O3) were conducted under a low pressure (10-3Torr) controlled Ar atmosphere as a function of oxygen partial pressure, temperature and/or time. Microstructural investigations of the samples from the wetting experiments indicated that two different dominant processes occur at the liquid Al-sapphire interface: epitaxial growth of new α-Al2O3 layers on the sapphire substrate at temperatures below ≍1100°C and dissolution of the sapphire substrate at temperatures above ≍1100°C.

The microstructural evidence indicates possible mechanisms by which oxygen is involved in the non-equilibrium wetting and adhesion of liquid Al on sapphire. The non-wetting to wetting transition in this system may be explained by the formation of an oxygen-rich interphase at the liquid Al-sapphire interface.

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