CHEMICAL THERMODYNAMICS AS A PREDICTIVE TOOL IN THE REACTIVE METAL BRAZING OF CERAMICS

Thermodynamics have long been applied to our understanding of the reac tive wetting phenomena in metal-ceramic joining. We postulate the exis tence of a ''solvent effect'' due to the interaction between the react ive element addition and the brazing alloy. This effect plays a signif icant role in reactive wetting. By taking this effect into account, mo re realistic reactivities of different reactive element additions into a given brazing base alloy are predicted. Irreversible thermodynamics are also used to characterize the driving forces for reactive metal-c eramic joining.