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Low-temperature fabrication of conductive SiC ceramics using SiO2-coated SiC nanopowder with Sc2O3 additive by spark plasma sintering

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Abstract

To reduce the sintering temperature of liquid-phase sintered conductive SiC ceramics, the SiC nanopowder with Sc2O3 additives was intentionally oxidized by heat treatment in air to enhance the SiO2 content coated on SiC surfaces moderately. Taking advantage of the lower eutectic temperature (1660 °C) between SiO2 and Sc2O3, conductive SiC ceramics were successfully sintered at 1700 °C. The effects of sintering temperature (1700–1900 °C), holding time (1–10 min), and additive content (1–7 wt.%) on microstructural, mechanical, and electrical properties were systematically investigated. The phase composition of as-received SiC ceramics contained Sc–Si–O–C–N and doped β-SiC, without apparent phase transformation of β-SiC to α-SiC. The Vickers hardness, elastic modulus, and fracture toughness of SiC ceramics varied within the ranges of 18.08–22.29 GPa, 269.12–391.16 GPa, and 4.09–7.86 MPa m1/2, respectively. The electrical resistivity of conductive SiC ceramics obtained under different process conditions varied in a small range (1–10 Ω cm). Meanwhile, the low-temperature sintering, phase formation, and evolution mechanisms of electrical properties were discussed in detail.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers: 52005445, 52175368, 52375391, and 52105162), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant number: LQ21E050018), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant number: 2022M712820), and China National Nuclear Corporation Young Talent Scientific Research Project (JT233).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Process Equipment and Control Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, People’s Republic of China

    Huaxin Li, Fuquan Yang, Ziqiang Luo, Weijian Shen, Chuanyang Lu, Yafei Li, Yanming He & Jianguo Yang

  2. Engineering Research Center of Process Equipment and Remanufacturing, Ministry of Education, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, People’s Republic of China

    Huaxin Li, Fuquan Yang, Ziqiang Luo, Weijian Shen, Chuanyang Lu, Yafei Li, Yanming He & Jianguo Yang

  3. College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, People’s Republic of China

    Huaxin Li, Fuquan Yang, Ziqiang Luo, Weijian Shen, Chuanyang Lu, Yafei Li, Yanming He & Jianguo Yang

  4. Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu, 610213, People’s Republic of China

    Lianfeng Wei, Yafeng Wang & Yong Zheng

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Contributions

HL contributed to formal analysis, methodology, and writing—original draft. FY, ZL, and WS contributed to investigation. LW, HH, and JY contributed to writing—review and editing. YW and YZ contributed to resource. CL contributed to data curation. YL contributed to formal analysis.

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Correspondence to Huaxin Li, Lianfeng Wei or Yanming He.

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Li, H., Yang, F., Luo, Z. et al. Low-temperature fabrication of conductive SiC ceramics using SiO2-coated SiC nanopowder with Sc2O3 additive by spark plasma sintering. J Mater Sci 59, 15149–15167 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-024-10086-9

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