Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites: Metal and Ceramic ...
Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites: Metal and Ceramic ...
Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Composites: Metal and Ceramic ...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
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