Rapid fabrication of porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics via nitridation of silicon powder with ZrO2 as catalyst

Porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics were rapidly prepared with Y2O3 as sintering additive and ZrO2 as nitrided catalyst, using Si and SiC as starting powders. Porous Si3N4/SiC ceramics with 5 wt% ZrO2 addition showed a complete nitridation and good mechanical properties (with a high porosity of 34.96%, flexural strength of 150±4.2 MPa, linear shrinkage of 0.02%). It was revealed that the reciprocal formation of ZrO2 and ZrN effectively enhanced nitridation by inhibiting the melting of silicon in micro-regions.