Spark plasma sintering of alumina/yttria-doped silicon carbide

Abstract

Silicon carbide possesses exceptional mechanical and thermal properties, but its densification by conventional sintering is often very difficult. In the present work, silicon carbide was consolidated by spark plasma sintering in the presence of alumina and yttria. The results pointed out that the use of a single oxide does not enhance the sintering kinetics significantly, while the contemporaneous addition of both oxides has a beneficial effect on densification, with a relative density increase of about 10%. Interestingly, the oxide doping allows to double the room-temperature flexural strength.