The contact interaction of metal-like carbides with graphite at high temperatures in a vacuum

Summary

• 1. After heating in the graphite packing material, the weight of the carbide specimens remained unchanged within hundredth parts of one per cent.

• 2. Metallographic examination revealed no signs of interaction on the graphite/carbide interface.

• 3. The microhardness of the carbide specimens and graphite, near the interface, after contact remained unchanged within the limits of test error.

• 4. The results of chemical analysis confirmed the absence of interaction between graphite and carbides in all the cases investigated.

It has thus been established that Ti, Zr, Hf, Cb, Ta, Mo, and W carbides do not react with graphite in a vacuum at temperatures up to 2200°C during a period of 10 hours, which is in agreement with literature data [1, 2], according to which the eutectic melting points in the pseudobinary systems are: 3080 ± 50°C for TiC-C, 2920 ± 50°C for ZrC-C, 3150 ± 50°C for CbC-C, 3310 ± 50°C for TaC-C, and 3250 ± 50°C for HfC-C.