Fabrication and investigation of novel hafnium-zirconium carbonitride ultra-high temperature ceramics

Abstract

By a combination of mechanical activation, combustion synthesis, and spark plasma sintering methods, bulk materials in the Hf-Zr-C-N system with various Hf/Zr atomic ratios were produced. The mechanical activation process in a low-energy mode (350 rpm) for 90 min resulted in the formation of layered Hf/Zr/C composite particles 10–30 μm in size, depending on the Hf/Zr ratio. The diffraction spectra of the as-synthesized powders were described by several isomorphic (Hf,Zr)(C,N)ss cubic phases with different nitrogen content. Spark plasma sintering contributed to the homogenization of the chemical composition and allowed production of the dense (∼98%) single-phase hafnium-zirconium carbonitrides with an FCC structure. The bulk ceramics exhibited superior hardness (∼17 GPa) and fracture toughness (∼5 MPa m1/2), relative to (Hf,Zr)C carbides prepared by similar methods.