Institute of Metals Division - Phase Equilibria in Yttrium-Rich Ternary Alloys Containing Aluminum and Carbon

The Y-Al- C ternary phase diagram for the com -position range from 55 to 100 at. pct Y and for a temperature of 950°C has been constructed from metallographic and X-ray diffraction data. The significant features of the isothermal section which is presented are the small solubility of aluminum in the binary Y3C phase and the presence of a ternary carbide phase with a small homogeneity range around the composition Y3AlC. The similarity in structure and composition between these two carbide phases is discussed in the light of the misci-bility gap which exists between room temperature and 1300°C, which was the temperature range studied. THE occurrence and stability criteria of ternary T3BC, carbide phases having the L'12 structure and the general formula T3BCx have been discussed in detail by stadelmaier1 and more recently by the present authors., Stadelmaier found many representatives of these phases formed between the T metals Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni and the B metals Mg, Al, Zn, Ca, Ge, Cd, In, Sn, Hg, T1, and Pb. The present authors reported on a new series of iso-structural carbide phases formed between the T metals of the Sc group and the B metal, aluminum. These new phases are unique in that many of the Sc group elements form stable binary carbide phases which occur about the composition T3C and which crystallize with a structure similar to that of the T9BCx ternary carbide phases. Furthermore, these binary and ternary phases are found to coexist in equilibrium with each other. The similarity in structure and composition between, for example, Y3C and Y3AlC in the light of the mis-cibility gap which had been found to exist between these two phases indicated a need for a more thorough knowledge of the phase relations which occur in alloys based upon these compositions. Consequently, an investigation of the phase equilibria in the yttrium-rich portion of the Y-A1-C phase diagram was undertaken. The limiting Y-A1 binary diagram determined by Lundin and Klodt3 and the results of Spedding et al.4 governing the Y3C phase were used as guides in , constructing the diagram. EXPERIMENTAL Alloys weighing about 10 g were prepared by arc-melting powder compacts made from the various components on a water-cooled copper hearth using a tungsten electrode in a gettered argon atmosphere. Good homogeneity was obtained by melting the alloys three times. The purity of the yttrium used was 99.9 pct (0.07 pct rare earths). The purity of the aluminum and the carbon was 99.99 pct. The results of chemical analysis on five representative alloys showed that losses during the alloying process were predominantly carbon losses and that in no instance did the measured concentration of this component differ by more than 3 at. pct from the intended composition. For this reason the alloy compositions which are reported are those of the charges prepared for melting. Three alloys which were analyzed for copper, tungsten, nitrogen, and oxygen compositions showed that no contamination had occurred either during casting or during the subsequent annealing treatments. For the major part annealing treatments were carried out on specimens which were placed in