Papers by Author: Wan Cheng Zhou

Abstract: SiC powders doped with aluminum in the method of thermal diffusion were prepared at 1800°C, 1900°C, and 2000°C respectively, and the permittivity and structure of SiC powders before and after thermal diffusion were investigated. There is no obvious change in the morphology and phase structure before and after the doping processes. Both the real and the imaginary parts of the permittivities of the Al-doped SiC powders are improved much more than those of the original SiC powders, and increase with the doping temperatures. It is believed that, the high values of both the real and the imaginary parts of the permittivity are due to electric relaxation and conductivity losses as result of aluminum atoms doped in silicon carbide lattice.

Abstract: Three-dimensional textile SiC fiber reinforced SiC composites with pyrolytic carbon interfacial layer (3D-SiC/C/SiC) were fabricated by chemical vapor infiltration. The microstructure and complex permittivity of the 3D textile SiC/C/SiC composites were investigated. The flexural strength of the 3D textile SiC/C/SiC composites was 860 MPa at room temperature. The real part (ε′) and imaginary part (ε″) of the complex permittivity of the 3D-SiC/C/SiC composites are 9.11~10.03 and 4.11~4.49, respectively at the X-band frequency. The 3D-SiC/C/SiC composites would be a good candidate for structural microwave absorbing material.

Abstract: Csf/Si3N4 composites were prepared by hot-press sintering method using α-Si3N4 power, short chopping carbon-fiber and sintering additives. XRD analysis showed that the α-Si3N4 was almost completely transferred into β-Si3N4. The SEM micrographs of fractured surfaces showed that special network developed by rod-like β- Si3N4 grains. The flexure strength of 590±10MPa, and fracture toughness of 7.94±0.1MPa·m1/2 were achieved for the samples incorporated with 0.5wt% the carbon fibers .The microwave dielectric property of Csf/Si3N4 composites was measured at a frequency range of 8.2~18GHz by E8362B PNA series network analyzer. The real part (ε ′ ) of the permittivity of the Csf/Si3N4 composites increases from 10 to 58 with the rise of the content of carbon fibers in the composites, as well as the imaginary part increases from 0.03 to 98 at frequency of 9.375GHz. A strong frequency dependence of the real part was observed both in X and Ku bands.

Abstract: Porous C/C composite with certain porosity prepared by Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) was chosen as the preforms to develop the C/C-SiC composites through precursor infiltration and pyrolysis(PIP), using PCS (polycarbosilane) as the precursor and divinylbenzene as solvent and cross-linking reagent for PCS. The effect of the infiltration solution with different PCS/DVB ratio on the final density, microstructure, and mechanical properties of composites was investigated and the proper PCS/DVB ratio to prepare the C/C-SiC composites was suggested. The experimental results showed that the final densities and the mechanical properties of the composites were close related to the PCS/DVB ratio. Higher PCS/DVB ratio resulted in higher final density and better mechanical properties, but not the highest PCS/DVB ratio could get the best mechanical properties. The main reason is that too high PCS/DVB ratio will make the infiltration process become difficult and lead to the formation of lots of pores in the final composite, at last lowers the mechanical properties. It is believed that the 50% PCS content is proper to prepare the C/C-SiC composites. The composite from 50% PCS infiltration solution could get the final density of1.696g/cm3, the flexural strength of 171Mpa, and shearing strength of 21.6Mpa, which are the best mechanical results among the obtained materials.

Abstract: A method is proposed for estimating the critical cooling rate for glass formation and continuous cooling transformation curve (CCT) from isothermal TTT data. The critical cooling rates and CCT curves for a group of lithium disilicate glasses containing different amount of Pt as nucleating agent estimated through this method are compared with the experimentally measured values and it shows this method can give a reasonable estimation.

Abstract: SiC-AlN solid solution powders were prepared from the mixtures of aluminum, silicon and carbon black in a nitrogen atmosphere with preheating self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) method. The powders synthesized with different ratios of Al/Si were mixed with paraffin wax and the microwave permittivity of the mixtures was measured at the frequency of 8.2~12.4GHz. The results were contrasted with that of SiC powders synthesized by preheating SHS in argon and nitrogen atmosphere respectively. The ε′, ε″, and the tgδ (ε″/ε′) of the mixture of SiC prepared in a nitrogen atmosphere are highest, followed with those of the SiC-AlN solid solution powders and the SiC powders prepared in an argon atmosphere. Along with the increase of atomic ratio of Al/Si, the ε′, ε″, and tgδ of SiC-AlN solid solution decrease. We believe that, with the increase of AlN dissolved, the concentration of carriers and the effect of dielectric relaxation will decrease because of the two contrary dopants.

Abstract: This paper presents the microwave dielectric property of porous silicon nitride ceramics at a frequency of 9360 MHz, which were fabricated by the nitridation of silicon powder. The porous ceramics with different volume fraction of porosity from 18.6% to 56.2% were produced by adding different amount of the pore-forming agent into the initial silicon powder. Microstructural analysis revealed a dense matrix containing large pores and cavities with needle-shaped and flaky β-Si3N4 grains distributing in it. The results showed that the dielectric constant of the ceramics reduces with the porosity increases. With the addition of α-Si3N4 powder in the raw silicon powder, the nitridation rate is raised, and the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss of the ceramics decrease notablely.

Abstract: A series of nanocomposites, SiCN/A3S2 ceramics, were prepared by hot-pressing method. The nanometer SiCN powder is characterized of high dielectric dissipation. The dielectric properties of the SiCN/A3S2 nanocomposites were investigated. XRD and SEM were conducted to study the phases and microstructure of the nanocomposites. Compared with the pure A3S2 ceramic, the grain size in the nanocomposites is reduced due to the addition of nanometer SiCN powder. The relative densities of the nanocomposites are also lower than that of the pure A3S2 ceramic. Both the real and imaginary parts of the complex permittivity of nanocomposites in X band increase as the content of SCN powder in the samples rises obviously. When the contents of SiCN powder in samples are same, the real and imaginary parts of the samples vary with the sintering temperature. The tanδ of the nanocomposites reduces from 1.9 to 1.4 when sintering temperature increases from 1450OC to 1650 OC. SAED pattern reveals that structure of the SiCN in SiCN/ A3S2 sintered at higher temperatures tend to crystallize. The real, imaginary parts and dissipation factor of the nanocomposites sintered at higher temperature is lower than those sintered at 1450 °C.

Abstract: Sodium superionic conductor, NASICON ceramic (Na1+xZr2SixP3-xO12, x=2), was hot-press sintered under different temperatures and the electrical properties of the obtained different samples were investigated. Results show that the relative density of the ceramics can be improved by hot-press process efficiently and the crystal size of the samples are closely related to sintering temperature. With the increase of sintering temperature, both the density and the crystal size of samples increase obviously, resulting in the increase of ionic conductivity of samples as the sintering temperature. When the sintering temperature reaches 1150oC, the ionic conductivity of sample is as high is 3.6×10-3S/cm, which is obviously higher than that of sample sintered at 1000oC (2.13×10-3S/cm). As the frequency increase, the real parts and the imaginary parts of complex dielectric constants for all the samples decrease in 8.2 GHz~12.4GHz frequency band. The ceramics obtained at the higher temperature possess the higher dielectric constant.

Abstract: A series of carbon fiber reinforced C-SiC dual matrix composites (C/C-SiC composites) were developed through precursor infiltration of polycarbosilane (PCS) and pyrolysis (PIP), using porous C/C composites with different density from chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) as the preform. The density, mechanical properties, and microstructure of the composites were investigated and the effects of the preform density and the PCS concentration of the infiltration solution on the final density and the mechanical properties of the composites were discussed in detail. The results show that the final density of the C/C-SiC composites prepared at the infiltration concentration of 50% is the highest, indicating that 50% is the proper PCS concentration of the PCS/ Xylene solution to prepare the C/C-SiC composites. The final densities of C/C-SiC composites were closely related to the preform density and the highest final density corresponds to the highest original preform density. For the composites prepared using infiltration solution of 50% PCS, the C/C-SiC composite whose preform density is 1.23 g/cm3 possesses the best mechanical properties while that whose preform density is 1.49 g/cm3 the worst mechanical properties.