Abstract
The inherent brittleness of silicon carbide (SiC) poses a significant challenge in concurrently enhancing its fracture toughness and hardness. While nanostructuring has effectively increased SiC hardness through the Hall−Petch effect, its impact on improving fracture toughness remains less explored. Consequently, there is an urgent need for strategies that can simultaneously enhance both hardness and fracture toughness. This study investigates the effects of microstructural modulation on nanocrystalline SiC bulks sintered under high pressure high temperature. By employing multidimensional modifications encompassing grain size, grain boundary, and lattice defect density, we successfully improved the mechanical properties of SiC ceramics. Notably, SiC bulks sintered at 25 GPa and 1500 °C, characterized by nanoscale grains, strong intergranular bonding, and abundant lattice defects within individual grains, exhibited an impressive combination of high hardness (32.2−33.3 GPa) and remarkable fracture toughness (4.8−4.9 MPa·m0.5). Detailed transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed multiple toughening mechanisms intimately linked to the microstructure.
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