The effect of the morphology of carbon used as a sintering aid on the mechanical properties of silicon carbide

In the present research, mechanical properties of silicon carbide sintered with four carbon forms as a sintering aid were examined. As the source of carbon, the following substrates were used: multilayer graphene (MLG), carbon black, highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and synthetic graphite. The sinters were prepared with the use of powder metallurgy technique and consolidated at 1900 °C using the Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) method. The influence of carbon form on mechanical properties, such as microhardness, hardness, fracture toughness, and elastic properties such as Young's modulus was investigated. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis of the obtained sinters was also performed.