Preparation of high-strength silicon carbide by SLS-RS

One major limitation of selective laser sintering (SLS) plus reaction sintering (RS) SiC ceramics was the poor mechanical properties related to those of the traditional reaction sintered SiC due to the excess residual Si and C. TiC as a new carbon source in SLS was explored in this work to improve the performance of sintered SiC. It's found that TiC could react with liquid Si and form liquid TiSi2 2 during the processing, and then reduce the residual Si from 26.41 vol% to 0.53 vol% in the final products. As the content of TiC increased, the flexural strength of the sintered sample increased from 274.3 MPa to 434.6 MPa. The maximum value was reached when the TiC content was 25 wt%. Continuing to add TiC would generate more TiSi2, 2 , and the flexural strength of the sintered sample would decrease.