Li2O addition as a means of achieving low-temperature densification of SiC ceramic

In order to achieve low-temperature densification of SiC ceramic, β-SiC nanopowder was doped with Li 2 O together with Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 –MgO as sintering aids, and then spark plasma sintered at temperatures ranging from 1450 °C to 1600 °C for 30 min under 30 MPa pressure in argon. The densities, microstructures and mechanical properties of SiC ceramics were systematically investigated, in comparison to the counterparts sintered with Y 2 O 3 –Al 2 O 3 –MgO additives. Since Li 2 O has a low melting point, Li 2 O addition effectively decreased the formation temperature of liquid secondary phase, enabling SiC ceramics to obtain higher density and lower porosity after low-temperature sintering (T ≤ 1550 °C). Besides, Li 2 O addition was found to decrease the viscosity of liquid phase and enhance grain growth of SiC through dissolution-reprecipitation process. When sintered at 1550 °C, Li 2 O addition led to a remarkable increase of density from 3.03 g/cm 3 to 3.21 g/cm 3 for SiC ceramic. Meanwhile, the SiC ceramic with Li 2 O addition exhibited a high Vickers hardness of 22.75 ± 0.35 GPa and a good fracture toughness of 3.83 ± 0.27 MPa m 1/2 . The research results are expected to benefit the low-cost fabrication of SiC ceramics based on pressure-assisted sintering and alleviate the thermal damage of SiC fiber in hot-pressed SiC f /SiC composites.