Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The microstructure of SiC/TiC in situ composites by chemical vapor deposition

Journal Article · · Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States)
;  [1]
  1. National Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan (Taiwan, Province of China). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering

Silicon carbide has many excellent mechanical properties such as high hardness, high temperature strength, thermal shock resistance, oxidation resistance, and chemical inertness. It is an attractive material for wear and structural applications, but the modest fracture toughness value, about 3--4 MPam[sup 1/2], limits its use at high contact stress loading. It is very desirable to improve the fracture toughness with adding second phases of whiskers, fibers or particles. Adding dispersive second-phase particles, TiC or TiB[sub 2], to increase the fracture toughness values of SiC has been successful. Many of the researchers have studied this strengthening with hot-press sintered specimens, but only a few with chemical vapor deposited (CVD) ones. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the microstructure and fracture mechanisms of SiC/TiC composites made by CVD method. It is well known that both SiC and TiC are brittle materials, but the composites have a good toughness and strength due to their differential coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Internal stresses can be introduced during cooling after deposition.

OSTI ID:
6932160
Journal Information:
Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States), Journal Name: Scripta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States) Vol. 31:9; ISSN SCRMEX; ISSN 0956-716X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English