Essential Factors Influencing the Bonding Strength of Cold-Sprayed Aluminum Coatings on Ceramic Substrates

The present work summarizes the most important results of a research project dealing with the comprehensive investigation of the bonding mechanisms between cold-sprayed Al coatings and various poly- and monocrystalline ceramic substrates (Al2O3, AlN, Si3N4, SiC, MgF2). Due to their exceptional combination of properties, metallized ceramics are gaining more and more importance for a wide variety of applications, especially in electronic engineering. Cold spray provides a quick, flexible, and cost-effective one-step process to apply metallic coatings on ceramic surfaces. However, since most of the existing cold-spray-related publications focus on metallic substrates, only very little is known about the bonding mechanisms acting between cold-sprayed metals and ceramic substrates. In this paper, the essential factors influencing the bonding strength in such composites are identified. Besides mechanical tensile strength testing, a thorough analysis of the coatings and especially the metal/ceramic interfaces was conducted by means of HRTEM, FFT, STEM, EDX, EELS, GAXRD, and EBSD. The influence of substrate material, substrate temperature, and particle size is evaluated. The results suggest that, apart from mechanical interlocking, the adhesion of cold-sprayed metallic coatings on ceramics is based on a complex interplay of different mechanisms such as quasiadiabatic shearing, static recrystallization, and heteroepitaxial growth.