An irreversible thermodynamics model was constructed to study the combination reaction of two heterogeneous pure metals in diffusion bonding based on the theorem of minimum entropy production and the Curie principle.The correlation between the irreversible reaction and diffusion was discussed,which provided the kinetic inevitability of an incubation period of a primary phase.The analytical descriptions of the incubation period and the kinetically critical grain size of the primary phase were deduced.Comparison of the experimental results of Al/Mo interfacial reaction with the calculations indicated that the performed theoretical analysis was reliable.
Mo foil （10 -20 μm in thickness） and Al foil （20 -60 μLm in thickness） were vacuum diffusion bonded at 600 - 640 ~C under 20 MPa for 54 min - 6 h. The joints were examined by scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS） to study the evolution mechanism of the reaction layers. The results show that Al atoms diffuse into Mo grain boundaries and form reaction products as Mo3Al8, MoAl4 , MoAl5 and MoAl12. The surface oxide film is eroded by the growths of the reaction products that plow into the lamellar texture of Mo grain boundaries. Mo3Al8 layer grows by ＂taking root＂ downwards and transforms into MoAl4 and MoAl5 phases upwards by absorbing Al atoms. MoAl12 layer grows up from MoAl5 layer in the same way. When the supplement of Al atoms ceases, MoAl12 transforms reversely into MoAl5 and MoAl5 into MoAl4 via the loss of Al atoms. However, MoAl4 continues to precipitate from Mo3Als layer. At last, there are MoAl4 and Mo3Al8 remained on the joint interface.
