Investigation on thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of Si3N4 ceramics via one-step sintering

Abstract High thermal conductivity Si3N4 ceramics were fabricated using a one-step method consisting of reaction-bonded Si3N4 (RBSN) and post-sintering. The influence of Si content on nitridation rate, β/(α+β) phase rate, thermal conductivity and mechanical properties was investigated in this work. It is of special interest to note that the thermal conductivity showed a tendency to increase first and then decrease with increasing Si content. This experimental result shows that the optimal thermal conductivity and fracture toughness were obtained to be 66 W (m K)-1 and 12.0 MPa m1/2, respectively. As a comparison, the nitridation rate and β/(α+β) phase rate in a static pressure nitriding system, i.e., 97% (MS10), 97% (MS15), 97% (MS20) and 8.3% (MS10), 8.3% (MS15), 8.9% (MS20), respectively, have obvious advantages over those in a flowing nitriding system, i.e., 91% (MS10), 91% (MS15), 93% (MS20) and 3.1% (MS10), 3.3% (MS15), 3.3% (MS20), respectively. Moreover, high lattice integrity of the β-Si3N4 phase was observed, which can effectively confine O atoms into the β-Si3N4 lattice using MgO as a sintering additive. This result indicates that one-step sintering can provide a new route to prepare Si3N4 ceramics with a good combination of thermal conductivity and mechanical properties.