Abstract

Conductive SiC-$ZrB_2$ composites were produced by subjection a 40:60(vol%) mixture of zirconium diborided ($ZrB_2$) powder and ${\beta}$-silicon carbide (SiC) matrix to spark plasma sintering (SPS) under argon atmosphere. Inner diameters of graphite mold were $15mm{\varphi}$ and $20mm{\varphi}$, respectively. The relative densities of $15mm{\varphi}$ and $20mm{\varphi}$ sample were 99.4% and 97.88%, respectively. Reactions between ${\beta}$-SiC and $ZrB_2$ were not observed via x-ray diffraction (hereafter, XRD) analysis. The result of FE-SEM of fracture face of $15mm{\varphi}$ sample was intergranular fracture and that of $20mm{\varphi}$ sample was transgranular fracture. Because the fracture strength of $15mm{\varphi}$ sample was much higher than that of $20mm{\varphi}$ sample. The electrical resistivity, $9.37{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ of $15mm{\varphi}$ sample was higher than that, $6.17{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ of $20mm{\varphi}$ sample because of densification. Although sintering condition of SPS is same. the properties of sintered SiC-$ZrB_2$ compacts were changed according to inner diameter of graphite mold.

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