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Highly‐efficient preparation of anisotropic ZrB 2 –SiC powders and dense ceramics with outstanding mechanical properties
Author(s) -
Zeng Yuan,
Liu Jianghao,
Liang Feng,
Xu Haiyue,
Zhang Haijun,
Zhang Shaowei
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.16152
Subject(s) - materials science , spark plasma sintering , carbothermic reaction , ceramic , composite material , vickers hardness test , sintering , fracture toughness , microwave , molten salt , microstructure , metallurgy , carbide , physics , quantum mechanics
Highly‐dense ZrB 2 –SiC ceramics with excellent mechanical properties including Vickers hardness of 24.5 GPa and fracture toughness of 4.8 MPa/m 1/2 were successfully prepared, by spark plasma sintering of the raw powders synthesized by a novel molten‐salt and microwave co‐assisted boro/carbothermal reduction (MSM‐BCTR) method. Compared with the processing conditions required for synthesizing ZrB 2 –SiC by conventional reduction method, the present MSM‐BCTR method possessed a variety of significant merits including the smaller material cost, lower processing temperature (1200°C), and remarkably higher efficiency (soaking time as short as 20 minutes). More importantly, the ZrB 2 –SiC powders, resultant from MSM‐BCTR treatment, were verified to have single‐crystalline nature and uniform well‐grown anisotropic morphologies (rod‐like ZrB 2 and sheet‐like SiC) as well as great potential in promoting the mechanical properties of their bulk counterparts. This great achievement was mainly ascribed to the specific MSM‐BCTR conditions characterized by microwave heating and molten‐salt medium.