Synthesis and Characteristics of Porous Silicon Carbide Ceramic Reinforced by Silicon Carbide Whiskers

Silicon powder and phenolic resin were used as raw materials to produce porous silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics, with SiC whiskers (SiCw) as reinforcement additionally. Starting with the preparation of core-shell structure precursor powder through coat-mix method, and then by carrying out molding, carbonization and sintering processes, SiCw/SiC ceramic examples were produced. The phase composite, fracture surface morphology, pore size and porosity, bending strength and thermal expansion coefficient of the final product were measured. Results show that the addition of SiCw apparently improved the intensive property of the products and the changing pattern were quantitatively analyzed; while little influence was observed on some other properties such as phase composition and thermal expansion coefficient. It means that SiCw can strengthen porous silicon carbide ceramics without weakening their thermal properties, which is particularly important because of its application in the field of high temperature fluid filtration. Incorporated SiCw is supposed to work in accordance with some toughening mechanism such as load transferring and matrix prestressing. Microstructure, pore evaluation and weight loss rate during carbonation and sintering were also noted to describe the procedure better.