A Coprecipitation Coating Synthesis of SiC/YAG Composites

The α-SiC in 0.5 μm size powders were coated with Al2O3 and Y2O3 by a coprecipitation coating (CPC) method for fabrication of SiC/YAG composites. The same powder preparation was carried out by conventional mechanical mixing (MM) method for comparison. Two kinds of SiC/YAG composites were manufactured by pressureless sintering using the different powders, named CPC composite and MM composite thereafter respectively. It is shown that the CPC composite has the advantages of homogeneous distribution of YAG phase and of being sintered to high density at a low temperature, 100℃ lower than that of MM composite. The strength (573 Mpa) and hardness (23.3 Gpa) of the CPC composite are significantly higher than those (323 Mpa and 13.5 Gpa) of the MM composite, respectively.