Effect of particle size distribution on SiC ceramic sinterability

Abstract

Silicon carbide (SiC) has drawn a significance attention in recent decades for its excellent properties such as high oxidation resistance, high hardness and low density. However, an important drawback for SiC manufacturing is its poor sinterability due to its highly covalent nature of bonding. This work investigates the effect of dispersion in particle size distribution (PSD) on the sinterability of SiC ceramics. In the present work, two types of SiC powders, consisting powders of sizes 0.3 μm and 2.5 μm, were subjected to mechanical milling in order to produce various patterns of particle size distributions. Subsequently, milled powders were sintered by spark plasma sintering. This sintering technology is used on account of its rapid heating and short time sintering. This work also suggests the usage of coefficient of variation, Cv as an appropriate parameter to indicate the dispersion level in PSD range investigated.