A novel Pr 3 Si 2 C 2 additive was uniformly coated on SiC particles using a moltensalt method to fabricate a high-density SiC ceramics via liquid-phase spark plasma sintering at a relatively low temperature (1400 • C). According to the calculated Pr-Si-C-phase diagram, the liquid phase was formed at ∼1217 • C, which effectively improved the sintering rate of SiC by the solution-reprecipitation process. When the sintering temperature increased from 1400 to 1600 • C, the thermal conductivity of SiC increased from 84 to 126 W/(m K), as a consequence of the grain growth. However, an increasing amount of the sintering additive increased the interfacial thermal resistance, resulting in a decrease of thermal conductivity of the materials. The highest thermal conductivity of 141 W/(m K) was obtained for the material having the largest SiC grains and an optimized amount of the additive at the grain boundaries and triple junctions. The proposed Pr 3 Si 2 C 2assisted liquid-phase sintering of SiC can be potentially used for the fabrication of SiC-based ceramic composites, where a low sintering temperature would inhibit the grain growth of SiC fibers.
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