Liquid metal embrittlement of molybdenum by the eutectic gallium-indium-tin alloy

Abstract

The liquid metal embrittlement (LME) sensitivity of pure molybdenum in liquid eutectic gallium-indium-tin al- loy has been studied as a function of temperature by axisymmetric notched tensile testing. Molybdenum is an intrinsically brittle material that recovers a ductile fracture behavior above a transition temperature found in this study at 197 °C. The sensitivity of this refractory material to LME is demonstrated in the temperature range where it normally recovers ductile fracture (200–350 °C). The LME fracture mode is then a mixture of cleavage and intergranular cracking with no striking fractographic differences with intrinsic brittleness. This is the first case of LME at low temperature for a refractory material.