From robocasting of inks based on boron-doped SiC particles to tailored Spark Plasma Sintering of 3D SiC parts
CHEYPE M. 1, ROSSIGNOL F. 1, PATELOUP V. 1, ESTOURNÈS C. 2, BERNARD S. 1
1 Institute of Research for Ceramics, Limoges, France; 2 CIRIMAT, Toulouse, France
There is a trend toward more performant or competitive materials with the objective to improve the efficiency of actual systems and to repel technological boundaries. Carbides can be considered as such strategic materials. They attract increasing interest due to their properties targeted for future materials and technologies especially in aerospace. Inherent difficulties to the traditional techniques for manufacturing such dense materials with a complex geometry can be overcome by the development of new manufacturing approaches on the first hand, and the deployment of synthetic paths where chemistry of materials and ceramic science are combined rationally to process multi-scale complex solid state architectures. This second part can be investigated by the Polymer-Derived Ceramics (PDCs) route, which offers new opportunities in ceramic sciences. The molecular origin of preformed preceramic polymers such as polycarbosilanes and the possibility of modifying them to be then shaped and transformed into advanced ceramics such as silicon carbide (SiC) play a major role in the elaboration of ceramics endowed with properties that reach far beyond those of existing materials. Here, the aim of this work is to modify SiC precursors with boron elements in order to enhance the sintering ability of the derived SiC powders. The latter served to prepare robocasting inks to form 3D structures that could be heat-treated at 1000°C in order to deliver porous 3D SiC-based components. These objects were then densified through the implementation of an original SPS process. Characterization has been done at each step of the process to deliver dense 3D SiC-based structures at relatively low temperature.