Microstructure development in hot-pressed silicon carbide: effects of aluminum, boron, and carbon additives

Abstract

SiC was hot-pressed with aluminum, boron, and carbon additives. The Al content was modified either to obtain SiC samples containing a continuous Al gradient, or to vary the average Al content. In both cases, it was found that increasing Al content resulted in decreased number density but dramatically enhanced aspect ratio of the elongated SiC grains. Amorphous-to-crystalline transformation was also confirmed in grain boundary films when Al content exceeded 4 wt%. In addition, increasing Al decreased the degree of cubic-to-hexagonal SiC phase transformation. Similar processing and characterization were done with modified boron and carbon average contents. The systematic experiments demonstrated that boron and carbon promoted formation of elongated grains through promoting 3C-to-4H SiC phase transformation during hot pressing. The experiments also clarified the mechanical property responses to microstructural modification. Tailoring of the SiC microstructure to suit different applications would be possible.