Processing and mechanical properties of porous silica-bonded silicon carbide ceramics

A simple processing route for manufacturing highly porous, silica-bonded SiC ceramics with spherical pores has been developed. The strategy adopted for making porous silica-bonded SiC ceramics entails the following steps: (i) fabricating a formed body through a combination of SiC and polymer microbeads (employed as sacrificial templates) and (ii) sintering the formed body in air. SiC particles are bonded to each other by oxidation-derived SiO2 glass. By controlling the microbead content and the sintering temperature, it was possible to adjust the porosity such that it ranged from 19 to 77%. The flexural and compressive strengths of the porous silica-bonded SiC ceramics with similar to 40% porosity were similar to 65 MPa and similar to 200 MPa, respectively. The superior strengths were attributed to the homogeneous distribution of small (<= 30 mu m), spherical pores with dense struts in the porous silica-bonded SiC ceramics.