High-strength porous silicon nitride fabricated by the sinter-forging technique

Porous silicon nitride with aligned fibrous grains was fabricated by sinter-forging technique, where uniaxial pressure was applied to achieve a specific density after soaking at elevated temperatures. Fibrous silicon nitride grains were formed during the soaking, and the grains were aligned by the subsequent forging. As the result, a specimen with strongly aligned fibrous silicon nitride grains was successfully fabricated. The specimen with a relative density of 76% exhibited high bending strength of 778 MPa.