Directional thermal transport materials enable anisotropic heat flow, thereby enhancing the efficiency of thermal management systems. These materials have found broad applications in aerospace, electronics, and automotive industries. Silicon carbide (SiC) based composites, with their exceptional properties including high modulus, thermal stability, and superior thermal conductivity, serve as an ideal structural material. Strategic manipulation over microstructure and composition enables directional thermal management, expanding applicability in thermal management and achieving structural-functional integration. By combining selective laser printing with precursor impregnation and pyrolysis (PIP), this work presents an innovative approach to fabricating thermally anisotropic C_f/SiC composites that integrate both structural and functional properties. The optimized composite (20% (in volume) chopped C_f) exhibited high fiber alignment (f_p = 0.7677) and pronounced thermal anisotropy, with thermal conductivities of 70.14 W/(m·K) perpendicular and 38.87 W/(m·K) parallel to the printing plane (anisotropy ratio: 1.8). This directional heat transport, enabled by fiber orientation and phonon scattering control, is critical for advanced thermal management. The composite also maintained good mechanical strength, exhibiting a flexural strength of (150.4 ± 9.8) MPa parallel to the printing plane, finalizing in a structural and functional integration.

Advances in the study of structural ceramic materials have revealed new perspectives and opportunities, with an increasing emphasis on incorporating biomimicry concepts. Carbide ceramics with anisotropic crystal structures—such as silicon carbide—exhibit superior properties, including high modulus, high-temperature resistance, wear resistance, and high thermal conductivity, making them ideal structural materials. The implementation of biomimetic texturing techniques can enhance their performance along specific orientations, thereby expanding their potential for use in more rigorous environments and endowing them with integrated structural and functional characteristics. This review provides an overview of commonly textured biological materials and discusses their performance. It emphasizes the techniques used to prepare anisotropic carbide ceramics and anisotropic carbide ceramic composites—such as strong external field induction (hot working under uniaxial pressure, casting technologies within magnetic alignment, etc.), template methods (biotemplating, ice templating, etc.), and three-dimensional printing technologies (direct ink writing, stereolithography, etc.)—focusing on the work of researchers within the structural ceramic community, summarizing the current challenges in the preparation of anisotropic carbide ceramic composites, and providing insight into their future development and application.

Poor flowability of printable powders and long preparation cycles are the main challenges in the selective laser sintering (SLS) of chopped carbon fiber (C_f) reinforced silicon carbide (SiC) composites with complex structures. In this study, we develop an efficient and novel processing route in the fabrication of lightweight SiC composites via the SLS of phenolic resin (PR) and C_f powders with the addition of α-SiC particles combined with the one-step reactive melt infiltration (RMI). The effects of α-SiC addition on the microstructural evolution of the C_f/SiC/PR printed bodies, C_f/SiC/C green bodies, and derived SiC composites were investigated. The results indicate that the added α-SiC particles play an important role in enhancing the flowability of raw powders, reducing the porosity, increasing the reliability of the C_f/SiC/C green bodies, and contributing to improving the microstructure homogeneity and mechanical properties of the SiC composites. The maximum density, flexural strength, and fracture toughness (K_IC) of the SiC composites are 2.749±0.006 g·cm⁻³, 266±5 MPa, and 3.30±0.06 MPa·m^1/2, respectively. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE, α) of the SiC composites is approximately 4.29×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ from room temperature (RT) to 900 ℃, and the thermal conductivity (κ) is in the range of 80.15–92.48 W·m⁻¹·K⁻¹ at RT. The high-temperature strength of the SiC composites increase to 287±18 MPa up to 1200 ℃. This study provides a novel as well as feasible tactic for the preparation of high-quality printable powders as well as lightweight, high-strength, and high–κ SiC composites with complex structures by the SLS and RMI.