Journal of Inorganic Materials

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Seeding on Microstructure and Fracture Toughness of α-S1AION

HUANG Qing-Wei1; WANG Pei-Ling1; CHENG Yi-Bing2; YAN Dong-Sheng1   

  1. 1.; State Key Lab of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure; Shanghai Institute of Ceramics; Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shanghai 200050; China; 2. Department of Materials Engineering Monash University, Victoria, 3168 Australia
  • Received:2001-02-23 Revised:2001-06-17 Published:2002-03-20 Online:2002-03-20

Abstract: α-SiAlON single crystal particles were obtained by a method of pressureless sintering and subsequent
acid treatments. The microstructure of YSm-α-SiAlON ceramics containing α-SiAlON single crystal particles was investigated. The experimental
results showed that the specimen without seeding consisted of fine elongated grains and small amount of relatively coarse grains. When specimens were
seeded with α-SiAlON single crystal particles, the elongated α-SiAlON grains presented. The morphology and amount of elongated
grains were effected by the seed size & amount. The fracture toughness of α-SiAlON ceramics with seeding was improved, owing to
grain pullout and bridging of elongated grains.

Key words: seed, α-SiAlON, microstructure, fracture toughness, nitride ceramics

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