Abstract
Al2O3 with 10 wt.% of SiC ceramic composite is synthesized at 1500°C by electrical resistance heating sintering with a holding time of 5 hours and microwave sintering methods with a holding time of 15 minutes. The samples generated by the two methods are characterized using powder X‐ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). Experiments with both samples showed that the existence of the α‐Al2O3 and β‐SiC phases in both samples was verified by the findings of XRD pattern on both samples. Microstructure study illustrates that the Al2O3 matrix particles have spherical‐like shape and their average matrix particle size is 67 ± 5 nm for electrical resistance heating sintered sample and 38 ± 5 nm for microwave sintered sample. The lattice strain and crystallite size of Al2O3 matrix were measured using Williamson–Hall (W‐H) methods, which were achieved via the use of XRD peak broadening, based on a diffraction pattern. Three modified W‐H models were used to compute other parameters, including strain (ε) and stress (σ), as well as energy density (u). These models were the uniform deformation model (UDM), the uniform deformation energy density model (UDEDM), and the uniform deformation stress model (UDSM). The average crystallite sizes of α‐Al2O3 attained from these three models of Williamson–Hall (W–H) methods and FESEM analysis are correlated and found very close to each other. In all three models of the W‐H technique, X‐ray diffraction peak profile examination of electrical resistance heating‐sintered and microwave‐sintered Al2O3/10 wt. % SiC ceramic composite reveals that the microwave‐sintered sample has finer crystallite size with less strain.
Highlights
Among all the ceramics, alumina (Al2O3) are extensively used in engineering applications owing to its thermal and chemical inertness, comparably high strength, and electrical and thermal insulators together with the availability and bounteousness [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Nihara stated that inclusion of silicon carbide (SiC) particles in little amount to the Al2O3 matrix can enhance the mechanical properties of Al2O3/SiC structural ceramic composite substantially in comparison with monolithic Al2O3 [15,16,17,18,19]. ey found that the addition of 5 wt.% SiC as a secondary phase improved the strength and fracture toughness of the material from 350 to 1520 MPa and 3.5 to 4.8 MPam1/2, respectively, by increasing the amount of SiC in the material [15]. ere are various ways to sinter this structural ceramic composite such as standard pressureless sintering, hot isostatic pressing, spark plasma sintering, and microwave sintering
It is a common practice to use peak profile analysis of diffraction pattern to estimate microstructural characteristics such as lattice strain and crystallite size, and the findings are compared with the observable attributes of the material [27]
Summary
Alumina (Al2O3) are extensively used in engineering applications owing to its thermal and chemical inertness, comparably high strength, and electrical and thermal insulators together with the availability and bounteousness [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. It is a common practice to use peak profile analysis of diffraction pattern to estimate microstructural characteristics such as lattice strain and crystallite size, and the findings are compared with the observable attributes of the material [27]. Both the microstructural quantities mentioned above influence the intensity and width of the Bragg peak and produce a 2θ peak position shift. Al2O3/10 wt.% SiC ceramic composite is developed in this study using both electrical resistance heating sintering and microwave sintering techniques. According to the literature review, a thorough and comparative study of X-ray diffraction peak profile analysis using these modified W–H models on electrical resistance heating sintered and microwave sintered Al2O3/10 wt.% SiC ceramic composite has not been published. Using ImageJ software, the particle size was calculated using the line interpolation technique
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