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Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites: Metal and Ceramic ...

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202j 7 Mechanical Properties of <strong>Carbon</strong> <strong>Nanotube</strong>–<strong>Ceramic</strong> Nanocomposites<br />

Table 7.4 Mechanical properties of SiC þ 1%B4C/10% CNT<br />

nanocomposite hot pressed at different temperatures.<br />

Materials<br />

Hot-pressing<br />

temperature ( C)<br />

Relative<br />

density (%)<br />

Bending<br />

strength (MPa)<br />

Fracture<br />

toughness<br />

(MPa m 1/2 )<br />

SiC þ 1%B4C 2000 93.9 317.5 a<br />

3.47 a<br />

SiC þ 1%B4C/10% CNT 2000 94.7 348.5 3.84 a<br />

SiC þ 1%B4C/10% CNT 2200 98.1 227.8 —<br />

Reproduced with permission from [Chap. 5, Ref. 41]. Copyright Ó (1998) Springer.<br />

a Average value.<br />

degradation. This leads to ineffective load transfer across the nanotube-matrix<br />

interface.<br />

As mentioned before, the SPS technique allows consolidation of ceramics <strong>and</strong><br />

its composites at lower temperatures. Owing to the covalent bonding nature of SiC,<br />

the SPS temperature must be controlled at temperatures 1800 C to achieve denser<br />

microstructure [Chap. 5, Ref. 114]. Figure 7.14 shows the effect of SPS temperature<br />

on the bending strength, hardness <strong>and</strong> indentation fracture toughness of monolithic<br />

SiC. Both the bending strength <strong>and</strong> fracture toughness of monolithic SiC reached<br />

an apparent maximum at 1800 C. Figure 7.15 shows the effect of VGCF addition on<br />

the mechanical properties of SiC/VGCF nanocomposites. Apparently, carbon nanofiber<br />

additions have no effect in improving the fracture toughness of<br />

nanocomposites.<br />

To improve the interfacial bonding between the reinforcement <strong>and</strong> SiC matrix,<br />

CNTs have been coated with SiC layer upon exposure to SiO(g) <strong>and</strong> CO(g) [Chap. 5,<br />

Ref. 48]. Morisada et al. [Chap. 5, Ref. 113] studied the effect of SiC-coated MWNTs<br />

on the Vickers hardness <strong>and</strong> indentation fracture toughness of the SiC/MWNT<br />

nanocomposites. Figure 7.16 shows the Vickers microharness vs nanotube content<br />

for the SiC nanocomposites reinforced with pristine <strong>and</strong> SiC-coated nanotubes.<br />

Apparently, coating the nanotubes with SiC layer improves the hardness of nanocomposites<br />

considerably, thereby facilitating effective load transfer across the<br />

nanotube-matrix interface. Further, the indentation fracture toughness of SiC-coated<br />

nanocomposites increases with increasing nanotube content (Figure 7.17).<br />

The nanocomposite with 3 vol% coated MWNT exhibits the highest indentation<br />

toughness of 5.5 MPa m 1/2 . However, this only corresponds to 14.5% increment<br />

over monolithic SiC.<br />

The mixing of CNTs with liquid polymer precursors allows nanotubes to be<br />

homogeneously distributed <strong>and</strong> the following low processing temperature<br />

excludes the damage of nanotubes. An et al. synthesized Si-C-N/MWNT nanocomposites<br />

by cross-linking <strong>and</strong> pressure-assisted pyrolysis of mixtures containing<br />

polyurea(methylvinyl) silazane <strong>and</strong> MWNTs [Chap. 5, Ref. 56]. They reported that<br />

the stiffness of Si-C-N ceramic increases markedly by adding 1.3 <strong>and</strong> 6.4 vol.%<br />

MWNTs. The elastic modulus values of the Si-C-N/MWNT nanocomposites deviate<br />

positively from those predicted from the Halpin-Tsai equation. A large deviation of

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