Mechanical and thermal properties of densified ZrCx (x = 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0) ceramics

Abstract

The mechanical and thermal properties of ZrCx are strongly dependent on the composition and microstructure. In the present study, densified ZrCx (x = 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0) with relative density in the range of 99.2–99.7% have been prepared by a combination of spark plasma sintering (SPS) and vacuum arc melting (VAM). Both the Young’s modulus and Vickers hardness monotonically increase with increasing C/Zr ratio. The maximum Young’s modulus and Vickers hardness values of 488.1 ± 13.4 GPa and 28.8 ± 1.7 GPa, respectively, for dense ZrC have been obtained. With increasing the C/Zr ratio, the thermal conductivity of ZrCx increases. The thermal conductivity ZrC ranged from 25.17 W/m/K to 43.85 W/m/K from ambient to 1200 °C. Owing to the higher density of ZrCx, the present thermal conductivities and Young’s modulus of ZrCx are higher than those of the previous studies. The present results are beneficial to design and preparation of ZrCx ceramics.