Microstructural Characterization of As-Cast V-Si Alloys and Reevaluation of the Invariant Reactions Involving the Liquid Phase of the V-Si System

Abstract

Alloys containing Me-Si-B (Me -Refractory Metal) are of great interest for high temperature structural applications and accurate knowledge of its low order systems (binaries and ternaries) is important to predict the phase relations in the multicomponent alloys. Recent reevaluations of binaries containing Me-Si found out that the accuracy of the description of this type of systems could be improved. Knowing this, a reevaluation of the invariant reactions in the V-Si system via microstructural characterization of as-cast alloys is presented. Alloys of key compositions were prepared by arc melting pure V (min. 99.75%) and Si (min. 99.998%) and characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) using back-scattered electron (BSE) mode, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results of this study confirmed the solid phases, the nature of the invariant reactions and determined new compositions for the liquid participating in certain invariant reactions.