Effects of rare-earth oxide and alumina additives on thermal conductivity of liquid-phase-sintered silicon carbide

SiC ceramics were prepared from a β–SiC powder doped with two different sintering additives—a mixture of La₂O₃and Y₂O₃and a mixture of Al₂O₃and Y₂O₃—by hot pressing and annealing. Their microstructures, phase compositions, lattice oxygen contents, and thermal conductivities were evaluated. The SiC doped with rare-earth oxides attained thermal conductivities in excess of 200 W/(m K); however, the SiC doped with additives containing alumina had thermal conductivities lower than 71 W/(m K). The high thermal conductivity of the rare-earth-oxide-doped SiC was attributed to the low oxygen content in SiC lattice, high SiC–SiC contiguity, and lack of β– to α–SiC polytypic transformation. The low thermal conductivity of the alumina-doped SiC was attributed to the point defects resulting from the dissolution of Al₂O₃into SiC lattice and the occurrence of polytypic transformation.