Microstructure of reactive sintered Al bonded Si3N4-SiC ceramics
(Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China)
Abstract: Aluminium nitride-silicon nitride-silicon carbide (AlN-Si3N4-SiC) composite ceramics were prepared to increase the bending strength and improve the phase structure of Si3N4-based ceramics. The ceramics were made by reactive sintering in N2 atmosphere at 1 360 ℃, using Al as sintering additive. The phase composing of ceramics was identified with an X-ray diffractometer and the microstructure of the materials was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The results indicate that the phase structure is affected remarkably and the interface modality is changed. The interface between Si3N4 and SiC becomes blurry and that between SiC and AlN matches more better at the same time. But the liquid-phase appears during the reactive sintering along with the addition of Al by which the melting point of Si is decreased. The appearance of liquid Si decreases the bending strength of the ceramics. Lower temperature nitrification technic was introduced to avoid the appearance of liquid-phase Si. The optimum addition of Al was investigated by XRD and SEM analysis in order to obtain the maximal bending strength of materials.
Key words: Al; Si3N4-SiC; microstructure; bending strength; reactive sintering