Preparation and Thermal Properties of Pressureless Sintered AIN/SiC Composites

AlN/SiC composites with 5 wt.% Y2O3 addition were fabricated by pressureless sintering at 1700-1950 oC. The influences of sintering temperature and SiC content on the relative density, mechanical property and thermal conductivity were studied. With sintering temperature increasing from 1700 oC to 1750 oC, the relative density increased significantly to about 98.0%, without evident changes from 1750 oC to 1900 oC, and then decreased slightly at 1950 oC. As SiC content increased, the flexural strength of composites sintered at 1750 oC increased firstly, and then decreased, obtaining a maximum flexural strength of 337 MPa at 20 wt.% SiC content. Meanwhile, the thermal conductivity decreased from 60 W/(m∙K) to 40 W/(m∙K) with SiC content increasing from 0 wt.% to 30 wt.%. Moreover, in the sintering temperature range from 1750 oC to 1950 oC, the thermal conductivity increased from 45 W/(m∙K) to 55 W/(m∙K) for AlN-10 wt.% SiC composites, but decreased from 40 W/(m∙K) to 36 W/(m∙K) for AlN-30 wt.% SiC composites.