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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2022, 11(1): 172-183 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-021-0525-7
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 06 November 2021

Microstructure and properties of porous Si3N4 ceramics by gelcasting-self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS)

Show Author's Information Shile CHEN1,  Liang WANG2,  Gang HE2,  Jiangtao LI2( ),  Chang-An WANG1( )
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
CAS Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Keywords:
self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), porosity, porous Si3N4 ceramics, gelcasting
Cite this article:
CHEN S, WANG L, HE G, et al. Microstructure and properties of porous Si3N4 ceramics by gelcasting-self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS). Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2022, 11(1): 172-183. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-021-0525-7
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Porous silicon nitride ceramics have attracted a considerable attention due to their excellent overall performance, but poor porosity homogeneity and structural shrinkage induced by prolonged high temperature sintering limit its further application. Herein, as a three-in-one solution for the above issues, for the first time we develop a novel approach that integrates the merits of gelcasting-SHS (self-propagating high-temperature synthesis) to prepare porous Si3N4 ceramics to simultaneously achieve high porosity, high strength, high toughness, and low thermal conductivity across a wide temperature range. By regulating the solid content, porous Si3N4 ceramics with homogeneous pore structure are obtained, where the pore size falls inbetween 1.61 and 4.41 μm, and the elongated grains are interlaced and interlocked to form micron-sized coherent interconnected pores. At the same time, porous Si3N4 ceramics with porosity of 67.83% to 78.03% are obtained, where the compressive strength reaches 11.79 to 47.75 MPa and fracture toughness reaches 1.20 to 6.71 MPa·m1/2.


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About this article

Microstructure and properties of porous Si3N4 ceramics by gelcasting-self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS)

Show Author's information Shile CHEN1, Liang WANG2, Gang HE2, Jiangtao LI2( ), Chang-An WANG1( )
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
CAS Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

Abstract

Porous silicon nitride ceramics have attracted a considerable attention due to their excellent overall performance, but poor porosity homogeneity and structural shrinkage induced by prolonged high temperature sintering limit its further application. Herein, as a three-in-one solution for the above issues, for the first time we develop a novel approach that integrates the merits of gelcasting-SHS (self-propagating high-temperature synthesis) to prepare porous Si3N4 ceramics to simultaneously achieve high porosity, high strength, high toughness, and low thermal conductivity across a wide temperature range. By regulating the solid content, porous Si3N4 ceramics with homogeneous pore structure are obtained, where the pore size falls inbetween 1.61 and 4.41 μm, and the elongated grains are interlaced and interlocked to form micron-sized coherent interconnected pores. At the same time, porous Si3N4 ceramics with porosity of 67.83% to 78.03% are obtained, where the compressive strength reaches 11.79 to 47.75 MPa and fracture toughness reaches 1.20 to 6.71 MPa·m1/2.

Keywords: self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS), porosity, porous Si3N4 ceramics, gelcasting

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Publication history

Received: 13 May 2021
Revised: 30 July 2021
Accepted: 03 August 2021
Published: 06 November 2021
Issue date: January 2022

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© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, Nos. 51872159 and 52072381).

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