Improvement offered by coprecipitation of sintering additives on ultra-fine SiC materials

A commercial SiC powder is processed through either conventional ultrasonication or coprecipitation of sintering additives, to obtain dense materials. The coprecipitation process involves a change of the surface properties of SiC particles which concerns the formation of amorphous precipitates (see the figure) deriving from the sintering aids and partial dissolution of the surface silica. These factors lead to microstructural refinement and reduction of the intergranular phase amount in dense samples.