Abstract
The in situ nano Ta4HfC5 reinforced SiBCN-Ta4HfC5 composite ceramics were prepared by a combination of two-step mechanical alloying and reactive hot-pressing sintering. The microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of the resulting SiBCN-Ta4HfC5 were studied. After the first-step milling of 30 h, the raw materials of TaC and HfC underwent crushing, cold sintering, and short-range interdiffusion to finally obtain the high pure nano Ta4HfC5. A hybrid structure of amorphous SiBCN and nano Ta4HfC5 was obtained by adopting a second-step ball-milling. After reactive hot-pressing sintering, amorphous SiBCN has crystallized to 3C-SiC, 6H-SiC, and turbostratic BN(C) phases and Ta4HfC5 retained the form of the nanostructure. With the in situ generations of 2.5 wt% Ta4HfC5, Ta4HfC5 is preferentially distributed within the turbostratic BN(C); however, as Ta4HfC5 content further raised to 10 wt%, it mainly distributed in the grain-boundary of BN(C) and SiC. The introduction of Ta4HfC5 nanocrystals can effectively improve the flexural strength and fracture toughness of SiBCN ceramics, reaching to 344.1 MPa and 4.52 MPa·m1/2, respectively. This work has solved the problems of uneven distribution of ultra-high temperature phases in the ceramic matrix, which is beneficial to the real applications of SiBCN ceramics.
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Acknowledgements
We appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52002092, 51621091, 51472059, 51225203, and 51272300), the National Key Research and Development Program (2017YFB0310400), the Postdoctoral Innovative Talents Support Program (BX20190095), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. LBH-Z19141 and 2019M660072). This work was also funded by Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory of BICE and Beijing Engineering Research center of Efficient and Green Aerospace Propulsion Technology (No. LabASP-2019-08).
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Wang, B., Li, D., Yang, Z. et al. Microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of in situ nano Ta4HfC5 reinforced SiBCN composite ceramics. J Adv Ceram 9, 739–748 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-020-0410-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-020-0410-9