Ductility of Mo–12Si–8.5B alloys doped with lanthanum oxide by the liquid–liquid doping method

Highlights: • Alloys doping lanthanum oxide by L–L doped method were prepared by hot pressing. • The compression strength of alloys are superior. • The fracture toughness of alloys is improved by L–L doped method. - Abstract: Mo–12Si–8.5B (Mo–Si–B) alloys doped with different mass fractions (0.3 wt%, 0.6 wt%, and 0.9 wt%) of lanthanum oxide (La₂O₃) were prepared by liquid–liquid (L–L) doping, mechanical alloying and hot pressing sintering techniques. The observation of the microstructures of the Mo–Si–B alloys reveals that the grain sizes of the alloys were refined with the increase in La₂O₃ doping. The fracture toughness values of the alloys of over 10 MPa m^1/2 reveal that the addition of La₂O₃ via the L–L doping method can obviously improve the alloy fracture toughness compared to the alloys doped with La₂O₃ via the solid–solid (S–S) doping method. In addition, compression tests indicate that the compression strength of the alloys was improved compared to Mo–12Si–8.5B alloys