Development and Processing of SiAlON Nano-Ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering

Abstract

The development of SiAlON-based ceramics has shown great impact in the field of cutting/drilling tool industry and other engineering applications. It is highly desirable to cut-down the cost of the cutting tools by increasing their service lifetime. Potential ways to improve tool life is by preparing these SiAlON-based ceramics adopting non-conventional synthesis routes and by using different precursors. The present study reports the results of synthesis of SiAlON-based nano-ceramics via spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique. Generally, metal nitride and metal oxide precursors are used for synthesizing self-reinforced SiAlON ceramics. In this work, nano-sized metallic precursors including amorphous-Si3N4 and crystalline β-Si3N4, SiO2, AlN and Al2O3 were used, which could be a novel way to synthesize SiAlONs at low temperatures with enhanced performance. The properties of these SiAlONs are tailored by optimizing the synthesis parameters. The synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscopy to study the effect of processing parameters on microstructure, density and hardness.