Planting of nanoparticles controlled by high energy laser irradiation on the surface of SiC whisker

Abstract

The surface modification of silicon carbide whiskers to raise the specific surface area and mechanical blocking function, which can effectively improve the reinforcing and toughening effect of the whiskers on engineering structural materials. In this study, it is proposed to directly metallurgical plant nanoparticles on the surface of silicon carbide whiskers by high-energy laser irradiation. The metallurgical reaction of the whisker-nanoparticle interface is realized by the transient gaussian laser energy field action and the formation of a binding layer of about 10 nm thickness. However, the whisker surface still maintains the regular trench morphology after the whisker is etched, and the structure greatly improving the generation efficiency of the whisker-nanoparticle metallurgical interface bonding layer. The material phase before and after laser irradiation maintains a consistent β-SiC crystal. TEM results are displayed that the whiskers and nanoparticles in the metallurgical binding region indicate that the (111) plane arranged parallel along the [111] orientation. TEM- EDS mapping shows that the whiskers formed after irradiation are almost free of nitrogen and oxide impurities. So that the final product can maintain the original phase and physical essence of the material. These results proved that laser irradiation is a highly stable processing technique for texturing modification of whisker surfaces.