The wettability of molten aluminum droplets on the 3C-SiC surface: Molecular dynamics study

AlSiC composites is an irreplaceable material for high temperature semiconductor devices due to its unique performance of high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion coefficient and bending strength. Understanding of the atomic level interactions between SiC and Al is paramount important. This leads to appropriate control on the transport process at the solid-liquid interface in the preparation of SiC reinforced aluminum matrix composites. To characterize the solid-liquid interaction, the aim is to perform molecular dynamics study on the wetting behavior of molten aluminum droplets on the 3C-SiC surface. The wettability of four crystal surface structure including Si-terminated, C-terminated, rectangular groove, wedge groove was characterized. The corresponding contact angles theta were 113.52 degrees, 80.11 degrees, 108.93 degrees and 132.83 degrees respectively. It was found that the atomic surface terminals and crystal surface morphology play an important role in the wetting behavior of 3C-SiC. High hydrophilic was observed on the C-terminated surface, while the wedge-shaped surface showed high hydrophobic. These theoretical findings demonstrate the effective modeling strategies when using wetting behavior as an interface modeling framework.