Metal-ceramic composites for hostile environment applications

The authors have developed a new metal-ceramic composite made from vanadium metal (V) and a non-stoichiometric magnesio-aluminate spinel ceramic. Three vanadium-spinel compositions, 40-60, 50-50, and 60-40 (by volume) were prepared by hot pressing mixtures of commercial powders. The properties of these composites were determined by measuring coefficient of thermal expansion, hardness, elastic constants, and fracture toughness. Radiation damage studies were performed on 50-50 vanadium-spinel composite samples using 1.5 MeV Xe{sup +} ions, with samples held both at 20 K and at room temperature. Room temperature irradiated samples exhibited very little change in microstructure, indicating that this composite has radiation damage resistance qualities such as resistance to volume swelling under particle bombardment. This feature, as well as other properties reviewed in this paper, suggest that vanadium-spinel composites are attractive structural materials for fusion reactor design