抄録
Porous silicon nitride ceramics, containing lutetia as a sintering additive, were fabricated by using a partial sinter-forging technique. The obtained specimens had anisotropic microstructures where rod-like silicon nitride grains preferentially aligned perpendicularly to the forging direction. Strength of a specimen with porosity of about 23% was more than 600MPa at R.T., which was achieved by choosing a suitable sintering condition. Furthermore, it maintained more than 450MPa even at 1500C. This achievement of good strength is very likely due to the combined effects of grain alignment, presence of pores between grains, and refractoriness of lutetia sintering additive. (Research supported by METI, Japan, under the Synergy Ceramics Project, part of the work supported by NEDO.)
