Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration

Mario Caccia; Javier Narciso

doi:10.3390/ma12152425

Key Parameters in the Manufacture of SiC-Based Composite Materials by Reactive Melt Infiltration

Materials (Basel). 2019 Jul 30;12(15):2425. doi: 10.3390/ma12152425.

Authors

Mario Caccia^{1

2}, Javier Narciso^{3

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Materials (IUMA), Alicante University, 03690 Alicante, Spain.
² Materials Engineering Department, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
³ Institute of Materials (IUMA), Alicante University, 03690 Alicante, Spain. narciso@ua.es.
⁴ Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Alicante University, 03690 Alicante, Spain. narciso@ua.es.
⁵ Center for Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Department of Chemistry, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway. narciso@ua.es.

Abstract

The manufacture of SiC-based composites is quite widespread, and currently different methods are employed to produce them. The most efficient method, taking into account the cost/performance ratio, is reactive melt infiltration. It consists in infiltrating liquid silicon into a porous preform that must contain carbon, so that SiC is produced during infiltration. In the present work, the synthesis of two SiC-based composite materials with very different applications and microstructures has been studied and optimized. In both cases, materials have been obtained with suitable properties for the selected applications. One of the materials studied is silicon carbide particles/silicon (SiC_p/Si) for protection systems such as armor jackets, and the other one is carbon fiber/silicon carbide (C_f/SiC) for use in braking systems. For the optimization, the dwell time and the atmosphere (Ar or primary vacuum) were used as variables. It has been found that in both preforms, the optimum conditions are 1 h dwell time and a vacuum atmosphere at 1450 °C. The effect of these parameters on microstructure and infiltration kinetics are discussed.

Keywords: CMCs; SiC; reactive infiltration.