Properties of SiC‐Si made via binder jet 3D printing of SiC powder, carbon addition, and silicon melt infiltration

Abstract

We report the physical and mechanical properties of ceramic composite materials fabricated by binder jet 3D printing (BJ3DP) with silicon carbide (SiC) powders, followed by phenolic resin infiltration and pyrolysis (IP) to generate carbon, and a final reactive silicon melt infiltration step. After two phenolic resin infiltration and pyrolysis cycles; porosity was less than 2%, Young's modulus was close to 300 GPa, and the flexural strength was 517.6 ± 24.8 MPa. However, diminishing returns were obtained after more than two phenolic resin infiltration and pyrolysis cycles as surface pores in carbon were closed upon the formation of SiC, resulting in reaction choking and residual-free carbon and porosity. The instantaneous coefficient of thermal expansion of the composite was found to be independent of the number of phenolic IP cycles and had values of between 4.2 and 5.0 ppm/°C between 300 and 1000℃, whereas the thermal conductivity was found to have a weak dependence on the number of phenolic IP cycles. While the manufacturing procedures described here yielded highly dense, gas impermeable, siliconized SiC composites with properties comparable to those of bulk siliconized silicon carbide processed according to conventional techniques, BJ3DP enables the manufacture of objects with complex shape, unlike conventional techniques. K E Y W O R D Sbinder jet 3D printing, phenolic impregnation and pyrolysis, reactive melt infiltration, SiC This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downl oads/doe-publi c-acces s-plan).

Influence of the dispersant on the parts quality in slurry‐based binder jetting of SiC ceramics

“…The binder was printed on the substrate using a piezo printhead (Polaris PQ‐512, Fujifilm) with a drop size of about 80 pl. The amount of binder per voxel was calculated as described by Cramer et al 52 . The binder was directly pre‐cured by the application of heat after the deposition and then the next slurry layer was applied.…”

“…The binder was printed on the substrate using a piezo printhead (Polaris PQ-512, Fujifilm) with a drop size of about 80 pl. The amount of binder per voxel was calculated as described by Cramer et al 52 The binder was directly pre-cured by the application of heat after the deposition and then the next slurry layer was applied. The binder was fully cured after the printing process to full strength for 16 h at 130 • C, like the casted samples, by placing the whole build volume into a furnace.…”

Fabrication of Glass‐Ceramic 3D Micro‐Optics by Combining Laser Lithography and Calcination

“…Only a brief overview of various categories of 3D AM techniques for ceramic materials will be presented here, while more comprehensive information can be found in relevant review articles. [5][6][7] Although several 3D AM methods are routinely used for larger scale component manufacture, such as light induced polymerization based methods employing UV irradiation: Stere-oLithogrAphy (SLA), [8,9] Digital Light Proccessing (DLP), [10][11][12] deposition methods of Direct Ink Writing (DIW), [13] Ink Jet Printing (IJP), [14,15] Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM also know as Fused Filament Fabrication -FFF) [16,17] and Binder Jetting 3D Printing (BJ3DP) [18] or layered high-power laser based systems of Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) [19] and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). [20] The listed techniques are allowing typical achievable feature sizes of tenths of micrometers [21][22][23] to millimeters in dimensions.…”

Effects of Chopped Carbon Fiber on the Forming, Structure, and Mechanical Properties of CCF/SiC Composites Fabricated by Selective Laser Sintering and Reactive Melt Infiltration

“…Interestingly, consistent with previous literature reports, all samples detected high‐order silicon peaks. [ 37 ] This means that silicon had a preferred orientation on the (111) crystal plane. Previous studies reported that PAN‐based carbon fiber reacted with molten silicon to form β ‐SiC at 1500 °C, and SiC crystals were precipitated from the carbon solution in liquid silicon during high temperatures, rather than after cooling.…”