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Sintering mechanism; silicon carbide; boron carbide; polytype.

Sinterable nano silicon carbide powders of mean particle size (37 nm) were prepared by attrition milling and chemical processing of an acheson type alpha silicon carbide having mean particle size of 0.39 𝜇m (390 nm). Pressureless sintering of these powders was achieved by addition of boron carbide of 0.5 wt% together with carbon of 1 wt% at 2050°C at vacuum (3 mbar) for 15 min. Nearly 99% sintered density was obtained. The mechanism of sintering was studied by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This study shows that the mechanism is a solid-state sintering process. Polytype transformation from 6H to 4H was observed.

M S Datta¹ A K Bandyopadhyay² B Chaudhuri¹

1. Department of Metallurgical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India
2. College of Ceramic Technology, Kolkata 700 010, India

Manuscript received

18 August 2001

Manuscript revised

8 February 2002