Carbon nanostructure-reinforced SiCw/Si3N4 composite with enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

Adil Saleem; Yujun Zhang; Hongyu Gong; Muhammad K Majeed; M Zeeshan Ashfaq; Jie Jing; Xiao Lin; Mingming Sheng

doi:10.1039/d0ra00876a

Carbon nanostructure-reinforced SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composite with enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties

RSC Adv. 2020 Apr 16;10(25):15023-15029. doi: 10.1039/d0ra00876a. eCollection 2020 Apr 8.

Authors

Adil Saleem^{1

2}, Yujun Zhang^{1

2}, Hongyu Gong^{1

2}, Muhammad K Majeed³, M Zeeshan Ashfaq^{1

2}, Jie Jing^{1

2}, Xiao Lin^{1

2}, Mingming Sheng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution & Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University Jinan 250061 PR China yujunzhangcn@sdu.edu.cn gong_hongyu@163.com +86-531-88399760 +86-531-88399760.
² Key Laboratory of Special Functional Aggregated Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University Jinan 250061 PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University Jinan 250100 PR China.

Abstract

Carbon nanostructures (CNS) as a kind of reinforcement material can remarkably enhance the mechanical and thermal properties of ceramics. This research presents an analysis of the influence of CNS on the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composites. The SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composites containing various types of CNS e.g. carbon nanofibers (CNF), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and graphene nano-platelets (GNP) were fabricated by hot-press sintering. XRD analysis confirmed a complete transformation of α-Si₃N₄ to β-Si₃N₄ and microstructural analysis shows a uniform distribution, as well as a pullout and bridging mechanism of CNS. The results revealed that the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composites increased with the addition of CNS. Maximum values of fracture toughness (9.70 ± 0.8 MPa m^1/2) and flexural strength (765 ± 58 MPa) have been achieved for the MWCNT-containing SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composite, whereas the maximum values of Young's modulus (250 ± 3.8 GPa) and hardness (27.2 ± 0.9 GPa) have been achieved for the CNF-containing SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composite. Moreover, thermal conductivity also improved with the addition of CNS and reached a maximum value of 110.6 W m^-1 K^-1 for the CNF-containing SiC_w/Si₃N₄ composite. This work provides a useful approach for the fabrication of high-performance multifunctional composites for emerging engineering applications.