Investigation of production of fine-grained SiAlON ceramics from nanopowders

Abstract

Different sialons' compositions were used to find the effect of material starting components on sintering and properties of sialon materials. The nanopowders (Si3N4, AlN, Al2O3, Y2O3 and Si3N4-27 wt.% AlN nanocomposite) were produced by the plasmachemical synthesis. The composite materials were sintered by the method of pressure-less sintering. Sintering temperature decreased significantly, if Si3N4-AlN nanocomposite was used as one of the components. The increased amount of α- sialon phase and higher hardness are characteristic for materials obtained from separate Si3N4, AlN, Al2O3, Y2O3 nanocomponents.