Wetting behaviors of the Ti2AlC ceramics by nickel and aluminum fillers

[Display omitted] •Wetting behaviors of the Ti2AlC ceramics by metallic fillers are studied.•The unique bonding characteristic in Ti2AlC makes limit contribution to wetting.•The interaction layer formed in the substrate promotes the wetting process.•Reactive Al atoms in Ti2AlC structure makes it wettable by many metallic fillers. In the present work, the behaviors of nickel and aluminum based fillers on the Ti2AlC ceramics are studied by wetting experiments and characterization of the interface cross-section. The results show that the two kinds of fillers possess different wettability on the Ti2AlC ceramics: the contact angle of the nickel fillers decreases continuously with rising temperature and reaches less than 20° finally, whereas that of the aluminum fillers remains larger than 135° in the full temperature range investigated. The characterization of the interface from cross-section observations reveals the presence of an interaction layer in the Ti2AlC ceramic substrate, which promotes the wetting process.