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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2022, 11(4): 656-664 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-021-0555-1
Rapid Communication | Open Access | Issue | Published: 17 March 2022

Anisotropic, biomorphic cellular Si3N4 ceramics with directional well-aligned nanowhisker arrays based on wood-mimetic architectures

Show Author's Information Songsong XUa,  Xiaonan ZHOUa,  Qiang ZHIa,  Junjie GAOa,  Liucheng HAOa,b,  Zhongqi SHIa,  Bo WANGa,b( ),  Jianfeng YANGa( ),  Kozo ISHIZAKIc
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
High Voltage Switchgear Insulation Materials Laboratory of State Grid, Pinggao Group Co., Ltd., Pingdingshan 467001, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan
Keywords:
anisotropic, wood, silicon nitride, carbothermal reduction nitridation (CRN), nanowhisker arrays
Cite this article:
XU S, ZHOU X, ZHI Q, et al. Anisotropic, biomorphic cellular Si3N4 ceramics with directional well-aligned nanowhisker arrays based on wood-mimetic architectures. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2022, 11(4): 656-664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-021-0555-1
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Abstract Full text About this article

Inspired by the transport behavior of water and ions through the aligned channels in trees, we demonstrate a facile, scalable approach for constructing biomorphic cellular Si3N4 ceramic frameworks with well-aligned nanowhisker arrays on the surface of directionally aligned microchannel alignments. Through a facile Y(NO3)3 solution infiltration into wood-derived carbon preforms and subsequent heat treatment, we can faultlessly duplicate the anisotropic wood architectures into free-standing bulk porous Si3N4 ceramics. Firstly, α-Si3N4 microchannels were synthesized on the surface of CB-templates via carbothermal reduction nitridation (CRN). And then, homogeneous distributed Y-Si-O-N liquid phase on the walls of microchannel facilitated the anisotropic β-Si3N4 grain growth to form nanowhisker arrays. The dense aligned microchannels with low-tortuosity enable excellent load carrying capacity and thermal conduction through the entire materials. As a result, the porous Si3N4 ceramics exhibited an outstanding thermal conductivity (TC, kR ≈ 6.26 W·m-1·K-1), a superior flexural strength (σL ≈ 29.4 MPa), and a relative high anisotropic ratio of TC (kR/kL = 4.1). The orientation dependence of the microstructure-property relations may offer a promising perspective for the fabrication of multifunctional ceramics.


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About this article

Anisotropic, biomorphic cellular Si3N4 ceramics with directional well-aligned nanowhisker arrays based on wood-mimetic architectures

Show Author's information Songsong XUa, Xiaonan ZHOUa, Qiang ZHIa, Junjie GAOa, Liucheng HAOa,b, Zhongqi SHIa, Bo WANGa,b( ), Jianfeng YANGa( ), Kozo ISHIZAKIc
State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
High Voltage Switchgear Insulation Materials Laboratory of State Grid, Pinggao Group Co., Ltd., Pingdingshan 467001, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan

Abstract

Inspired by the transport behavior of water and ions through the aligned channels in trees, we demonstrate a facile, scalable approach for constructing biomorphic cellular Si3N4 ceramic frameworks with well-aligned nanowhisker arrays on the surface of directionally aligned microchannel alignments. Through a facile Y(NO3)3 solution infiltration into wood-derived carbon preforms and subsequent heat treatment, we can faultlessly duplicate the anisotropic wood architectures into free-standing bulk porous Si3N4 ceramics. Firstly, α-Si3N4 microchannels were synthesized on the surface of CB-templates via carbothermal reduction nitridation (CRN). And then, homogeneous distributed Y-Si-O-N liquid phase on the walls of microchannel facilitated the anisotropic β-Si3N4 grain growth to form nanowhisker arrays. The dense aligned microchannels with low-tortuosity enable excellent load carrying capacity and thermal conduction through the entire materials. As a result, the porous Si3N4 ceramics exhibited an outstanding thermal conductivity (TC, kR ≈ 6.26 W·m-1·K-1), a superior flexural strength (σL ≈ 29.4 MPa), and a relative high anisotropic ratio of TC (kR/kL = 4.1). The orientation dependence of the microstructure-property relations may offer a promising perspective for the fabrication of multifunctional ceramics.

Keywords: anisotropic, wood, silicon nitride, carbothermal reduction nitridation (CRN), nanowhisker arrays

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 08 September 2021
Revised: 26 October 2021
Accepted: 15 November 2021
Published: 17 March 2022
Issue date: April 2022

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51872223 and U2066216), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2020M672248), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. xzy012019014), and the National Key R&D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFB0903800 and 2017YFB0310300).

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