2.1. Materials
Two types of starting powders were prepared. The first one (type-I) was prepared
by mixing commercial powders of Cu, Ti, and C, in order to produce a
composite of (60 wt.% Cu + 40 wt.% TiC). The second one (type-II) was prepared by
mixing powders of CuO, NiO, Al, Si, and B2O3, in order to produce a Cu/Ni alloy
with the composition of 85 wt.% Cu + 15 wt.% Ni (using the following reactions of
Eqs. (1)–(3)). Here, B2O3 was added as a slagging agent to facilitate the separation
between alumina and metal melts product. Q235 steel with the dimension of
100 mm
×
50 mm
×
3 mm was used as the substrate material.