Influence of boron on the low-temperature plasticity and fracture mechanism in the high-temperature synthesis of the intermetallic Ni3Al

We have studied the influence of boron on the plasticity and strength of the intermetallic compound Ni₃Al at stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric compositions, grown by self-propagating high temperature synthesis. We have determined the nature of the fracture and the fraction of brittle intercrystallite and viscous transcrystallite fracture. A correlation is found between the low temperature plasticity and the fraction of transcrystallite fracture. It is shown that the addition of boron, up to its solubility increases the cohesive strength of the grain boundaries in melts at the stoichiometric and nonstoichiometric compositions. In a melt with 25 at. % Al it remains about two times smaller than in a melt with 24 at. % Al.V. D. Kuznetsova Physicotechnical Institute at Tomsk University, Siberia. Institute for the Physics of Strength and Materials Fabrication, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 47–53, December, 1993.