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Investigation of Phase Stability in the System Sic-AlN

1983; Wiley; Volume: 66; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1151-2916.1983.tb15713.x

1551-2916

William Rafaniello, M.R. Plichta, Anil V. Virkar,

Metal and Thin Film Mechanics

Dense samples of several compositions in the system SiC-AIN were fabricated by hot-pressing. The SiC-AIN powder was prepared by carbothermal reduction of an intimate mixture of alumina, silica, and carbon in a nitrogen atmosphere. X-ray diffraction and electron and optical microscopy were used to determine the chemical and microstructural characteristics of the hot-pressed specimens. Materials with bulk compositions between 15 and 75 wt% AIN were found to be nonhomo-geneous when hot-pressed below 2100°C. These materials were determined to be a mixture of SiC-AIN solid solutions with different compositions. The observed compositional variations were distinctly bimodal. The source of the in-homogeneity was the starting SiC-AIN powder. The powders, as well as the hot-pressed samples, consisted of a mixture of small crystals rich in SiC and large AIN-rich crystals. Compositions outside the 15 to 75 wt% AIN region were found to be single phase and to have the wurtzite structure. Hot-pressing SiC-AIN in the intermediate composition range at 2300°C produced an optically and chemically homogeneous material. The precipitation of an SiC-rich phase from a 75 wt% AIN solid solution and the precipitation of an AIN-rich phase from a 47 wt% AIN alloy when annealed at 1700°C are strong indications that a miscibility gas exists in the system SiC-AIN.