Abstract
Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics have good wear resistance but poor friction properties under dry sliding conditions. To lower the friction of SiC, a novel porous carbon material called rice bran carbon (RBC) was added into SiC to make SiC/RBC composite ceramics. The SiC/RBC composites were prepared by mixing one of three kinds of RBC powders having different particle sizes and a fine SiC doped with Al4C3 and B4C additives and sintering at 1600 °C for 5 min by a pulse electric current sintering (PECS) method. The mechanical and tribological properties of the SiC/RBC composites were evaluated and compared with those of monolithic SiC, monolithic RBC bulk material, and SiC/graphite composite. The SiC/RBC composites not only had superior fracture strength (3–4 times as high as that of the monolithic RBC material) but also showed low friction coefficients (around 0.25) and high wear resistance (at a level of 10t-6 mm3 Nt-1 mt-1) when slid against a silicon carbide ceramic counterface during block-on-ring sliding tests under dry conditions. Compared with the conventional SiC/graphite composite, the SiC/RBC composites had higher mechanical strength, lower friction coefficients, and better wear resistance.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
X. Dong, S. Jahanmir and L.K. Ives: Wear transition diagram for silicon carbide. Tribol. Int. 28, 559 (1995).
M. Shuaib and T.J. Davies: Wear behavior of a REFEL SiC containing fluorides up to 900 °C. Wear 249, 20 (2001).
M. Sakaguchi and K. Otsuka: Ceramics sliding materials: Ceramic-solid lubricant composites. New Ceram. 5, 511992. (in Japanese).
J.Y. Paris, L. Vincent and J. Denape: High-speed tribological behaviour of a carbon/silicon carbide composite. Compos. Sci. Technol. 6, 417 (2001).
R. Wasche and D. Klaffke: Wear of multiphase SiC based ceramic composites containing free carbon. Wear 249, 220 (2001).
Y. Zhou, K. Hirao, Y. Yamauchi and S. Kanzaki: Tribological properties of silicon carbide and silicon carbide-graphite composite ceramics in sliding contact. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 86, 991 (2003).
K. Hokkirigawa, S. Shikano and T. Takahashi: Development of hard porous carbon materials “RB ceramics” made of rice bran, in Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Ecomaterials, edited by R. Yamamoto (The Society of Non-Traditional Technology, Tokyo, Japan, 1997), p. 132.
K. Hokkirigawa: Development and application of rice bran ceramics as a new tribo-material. In Proc. Int. Tribology Conf., edited by K. Ichimaru, S. Aihara, A. Goto, M. Masuko, Y. Mizutani, S. Mori, M. Suzuki, and N. Izumi (Japanese Society of Tribologists, Tokyo, Japan, 2000), p. 31.
Y. Zhou, H. Tanaka, S. Otani and Y. Bando: Low-temperature pressureless sintering of a-SiC with Al4C3–B4C–C additions. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 82, 1959 (1999).
H. Tanaka and Y. Zhou: Low temperature sintering and elongated grain growth of 6H–SiC powder with AlB2 and C additives. J. Mater. Res. 14, 518 (1999).
Y. Zhou, K. Hirao, M. Toriyama and H. Tanaka: Very rapid densification of nanometer silicon carbide powder by pulse electric current sintering. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 83, 654 (2000).
Z. Shen, M. Johnson, Z. Zhao and M. Nygren: Spark plasma sintering of alumina. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 85, 1921 (2002).
T. Nose and T. Fujii: Evaluation of fracture toughness for ceramic materials by a single-edge-precracked-beam method. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 71, 328 (1988).
M. Nakamura, K. Hirao, Y. Yamauchi and S. Kanzaki: Tribological properties of unidirectionally aligned silicon nitride. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84, 2579 (2001).
M.I. Jones, H. Hyuga, K. Hirao and Y. Yamauchi: Wear behaviour of single phase and composite sialon ceramics stabilized with Y2O3 and Lu2O3. J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 24, 3271 (2004).
S.M. Hsu and M.C. Shen: Ceramic wear maps. Wear 200, 154 (1996).
K. Adachi, K. Kato and N. Chen: Wear maps of ceramics. Wear 203–204, 291 (1997).
A. Ravikiran and S. Jahanmir: Effect of contact pressure and load on wear of alumina. Wear 251, 980 (2001).
I.M. Hutchings: Wear-resistant materials: Into the next century. Mater. Sci. Eng. A184, 185 (1994).
D.A. Rigney: The roles of hardness in the sliding behavior of materials. Wear 175, 63 (1994).
A.R. Boccaccini: The relationship between wear behaviour and brittleness index in engineering ceramics and dispersed-reinforced ceramic composites. Interceram. 48, 176 (1999).
W.D. Kingery, H.K. Bowen and D.R. Uhlmann: Introduction to Ceramics, 2nd ed. (John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1976), p. 80.
S. Somiya and Y. Inomata: Silicon Carbide Ceramics-1, 1st ed. (Elsevier Applied Science, London, U.K., 1991), p. 9.
Y. Takeuchi: Porous Materials: Characterization, Production and Application, 1st ed. (Fuji Technosystem, Tokyo, Japan, 1999), p. 47 (in Japanese).
Y.J. He, L. Winnubst, A.J. Burggraaf, H. Verweji, P.G.T. Van der Varst. and B. de With: Influence of porosity on friction and wear of tetragonal zirconia polycrystal. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 80, 377 (1997).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, Y., Hirao, K., Yamaguchi, T. et al. Preparation and tribological properties of SiC/rice bran carbon composite ceramics. Journal of Materials Research 20, 3439–3448 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2005.0427
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2005.0427