PNNL

Abstract

One of the challenges in developing a useful ceramic joining technique is in producing a joint that offers good strength under high temperature and highly oxidizing operating conditions. Unfortunately many of the commercially available active metal ceramic brazing alloys exhibit oxidation behaviors which are unacceptable for use in a high temperature application. We have developed a new approach to ceramic brazing, referred to as air brazing, that employs an oxide wetting agent dissolved in a molten noble metal solvent, in this case CuO in Ag, such that acceptable wetting behavior occurs on a number of ceramic substrates. In an effort to explore how to increase the operating temperature of this type of braze, we have investigated the effect of ternary palladium additions on the wetting characteristics of our standard Ag-CuO air braze composition