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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2024, 13(1): 86-100 https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2024.9220838
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 24 January 2024

Toughened (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–SiC composites fabricated by one-step reactive sintering with a unique SiB6 additive

Show Author's Information Wei Hao1( ),  Xinzhe Lu1,  Ling Li3,  Tao Wang1,  Guoliang Ren3,  Huangyue Cai3,  Xiaofeng Zhao3,  Dongyun Wang1,  Na Ni2( )
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Urban Rail Transit Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Technology & Equipment, Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang 321004, China
Key Lab of Education Ministry for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Keywords:
fracture toughness, reactive sintering, boro/carbothermal reduction, high-entropy diboride, silicon hexaboride
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Hao W, Lu X, Li L, et al. Toughened (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–SiC composites fabricated by one-step reactive sintering with a unique SiB6 additive. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2024, 13(1): 86-100. https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2024.9220838
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

High-entropy diboride has been arousing considerable interest in recent years. However, the low toughness and damage tolerance limit its applications as ultra-high-temperature structural materials. Here we report that a unique SiB6 additive has been first incorporated as boron and silicon sources to fabricate a high-entropy boride (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–SiC composite though one-step boro/carbothermal reduction reactive sintering. A synergetic effect of high-entropy sluggish diffusion and SiC secondary phase retarded the grain growth of the (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–51SiC composites. The small grain size was beneficial to shorten the diffusion path for mass transport, thereby enhancing the relative density to ~99.3%. These results in an increase of fracture toughness from ~5.2 in HEBS-1900 to ~7.7 MPa·m1/2 in HEBS-2000, which corresponded to a large improvement of 48%. The improvement was attributed to a mixed mode of intergranular and transgranular cracking for offering effective pinning in crack propagation, resulting from balanced grain boundary strength collectively affected by improved densification, solid solution strengthening, and incorporation of SiC secondary phase.


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About this article

Toughened (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–SiC composites fabricated by one-step reactive sintering with a unique SiB6 additive

Show Author's information Wei Hao1( ), Xinzhe Lu1, Ling Li3, Tao Wang1, Guoliang Ren3, Huangyue Cai3, Xiaofeng Zhao3, Dongyun Wang1, Na Ni2( )
Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Urban Rail Transit Intelligent Operation and Maintenance Technology & Equipment, Zhejiang Normal University, Zhejiang 321004, China
Key Lab of Education Ministry for Power Machinery and Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Abstract

High-entropy diboride has been arousing considerable interest in recent years. However, the low toughness and damage tolerance limit its applications as ultra-high-temperature structural materials. Here we report that a unique SiB6 additive has been first incorporated as boron and silicon sources to fabricate a high-entropy boride (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–SiC composite though one-step boro/carbothermal reduction reactive sintering. A synergetic effect of high-entropy sluggish diffusion and SiC secondary phase retarded the grain growth of the (Ti0.2Zr0.2Hf0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2)B2–51SiC composites. The small grain size was beneficial to shorten the diffusion path for mass transport, thereby enhancing the relative density to ~99.3%. These results in an increase of fracture toughness from ~5.2 in HEBS-1900 to ~7.7 MPa·m1/2 in HEBS-2000, which corresponded to a large improvement of 48%. The improvement was attributed to a mixed mode of intergranular and transgranular cracking for offering effective pinning in crack propagation, resulting from balanced grain boundary strength collectively affected by improved densification, solid solution strengthening, and incorporation of SiC secondary phase.

Keywords: fracture toughness, reactive sintering, boro/carbothermal reduction, high-entropy diboride, silicon hexaboride

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Received: 09 July 2023
Revised: 03 December 2023
Accepted: 06 December 2023
Published: 24 January 2024
Issue date: January 2024

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© The Author(s) 2024.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52072238) and Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (No. 2022C01139).

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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