The Effect of Chemical Vapor Infiltrated SiC Whiskers on the Change in the Pore Structure of a Porous SiC Body

In this study, SiC whiskers were grown on a porous SiC diesel particulate filter for nanoparticle filtering. To grow the whiskers at the inner pore without closing the pores, we used chemical vapor infiltration with a solution source and a dilute. As the deposition time increased, the whiskers grew and formed a network structure. After 180 min of deposition, the mean diameter of the whiskers was 174 nm and the compressive strength was 58.4 MPa. The pores shrank from $10{\mu}m\;to\;0.4{\mu}m$ and, because the whiskers filed the inner pores, the gradient of permeability decreased as the deposition time increased. However, by using the network structure of whiskers deposited for 120 min and 180 min, we obtained a diesel particulate filter with pores of $0.98{\mu}m\;and\;0.4{\mu}m$, respectively. Furthermore, the filter shows better permeability than a porous body with pores of $1{\mu}m$. In short, by filtering the nanoparticulate materials, the network structure of whiskers improves the strength, reduces the pore size and minimizes the permeability drop.