Advanced processing of carbide composites: from polymer precursors to dense B₄C/SiC composite materials

Abstract

The densification of B 4 C/SiC composites was carried out using Spark Plasma Sintering and Polymer-Derived Ceramics to lower sintering temperatures and to reduce the energy consumption of the manufacturing process. The method enables the manufacturing of near-fully materials with homogeneous phase distributions and controlled grain sizes, offering significant advantages over conventional powder-based composites. PDC-based composites exhibit finer and more homogeneous phase distributions than their powder-based counterparts. Besides, in-situ and ex-situ pyrolysis methods were explored and did not affect the final material properties. Additionally, an attempt to reduce the sintering temperature was undertaken with a chemical transformation of functionalised powder by oxidation or metallic silicon addition. In both cases the densification behaviour was affected and started earlier than for B 4 C/PDC composites. Finally, mechanical properties were correlated with the microstructures of B 4 C/PDC composites, revealing an increase of the Young’s modulus of the 30 wt% composite when the grain size decreased.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2026 · DOI ↗