Spark plasma sintering of high-energy mechanical milled Si3N4 powder.

Abstract

Nano-crystalline beta-Si3N4 powder has been prepared by high-energy mechanical milling. A systematic study of various sintering parameters, namely temperature, holding time, heating rate, etc. was conducted to investigate their effect on the densification, grain-growth and mechanical properties of the nano-crystal beta-Si3N4 powder. The objective is to obtain a dense beta-Si3N4 ceramics with grains as small as possible.