Thermal conductivity of Ca α‐SiAlON ceramics with varying m and n values

Abstract

Abstractα‐SiAlON is well known for its excellent mechanical properties, but its thermal properties are less investigated. In this work, we investigate the thermal conductivity of Ca α‐SiAlON ceramics with varying m and n values and prepared samples by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1600°C or gas pressure sintering (GPS) at 1800°C and 1900°C. The prepared Ca α‐SiAlON ceramics showed thermal conductivities ranging from 4.6 to 10.7 W/(mK) at 25°C. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the α‐SiAlON samples could be reduced by increasing either m or n or both. Besides, the samples prepared by SPS had lower thermal conductivity compared with those by GPS due to their smaller grain size, and the effect of m and n would be minor after m reached 2. These results provide basic knowledge for tuning α‐SiAlON's thermal conductivity for applications concerning thermal management.