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In typical braze joints, melting point depressants degrade the structural robustness by concentrating as brittle phases into continuous seams along the centerline. The objective of the present article is to sufficiently understand the mechanisms governing the microstructure of a typical braze so that approaches for modifying the fabrication to eliminate brittleness can be identified. A characterization conducted for a quaternary braze used for stainless steel bonds, containing P and Si melting point depressants, reveals that the thermochemical interactions governing the microstructure include solution/reprecipitation, solid-state diffusion, and solidification. It is shown that the Si can be incorporated into a solid solution c-Ni(Fe, Si) phase that forms by reprecipitation. Moreover, this interaction can suppress the formation of silicides within a permissible braze cycle. However, the P is only diluted through solid-state diffusion into the parent alloy. This happens slowly because of its low solubility rendering it impractical to eliminate the phosphide intermetallic. Approaches that obviate this impediment to joint robustness are described. They involve the spatial disruption of the continuous phosphidecontaining eutectic with a ductile c-Ni(Fe, Si) phase.

The remarkable ability of some plants and animals to cling strongly to substrates despite relatively weak interfacial bonds has important implications for the development of synthetic adhesives. Here, we examine the origins of large detachment forces using a thin elastomer tape adhered to a glass slide via van der Waals interactions, which serves as a model system for geckos, mussels and ivy. The forces required for peeling of the tape are shown to be a strong function of the angle of peeling, which is a consequence of frictional sliding at the edge of attachment that serves to dissipate energy that would otherwise drive detachment. Experiments and theory demonstrate that proper accounting for frictional sliding leads to an inferred work of adhesion of only approximately 0.5 J m 22 (defined for purely normal separations) for all load orientations. This starkly contrasts with the interface energies inferred using conventional interface fracture models that assume pure sticking behaviour, which are considerably larger and shown to depend not only on the mode-mixity, but also on the magnitude of the mode-I stress intensity factor. The implications for developing frameworks to predict detachment forces in the presence of interface sliding are briefly discussed.

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