• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.331-339
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• 2021

Environmental barrier coatings(EBCs) are applied to the SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites(CMCs) in order to protect CMCs from being corroded with water vapor by combustion gas in gas turbine engines. Ytterbium silicates, such as ytterbium monosilicate and ytterbium disilicate, are ones of the candidate materials for EBCs due to their excellent resistance to water vapor corrosion as well as thermal-expansion match with SiC. In this study, ytterbium silicates are fabricated with 2-step solid-state synthesis targeting ytterbium disilicate. After synthesizing ytterbium monosilicate, the mixtures of ytterbium monosilicate and SiO₂ are heat-treated and densified by using pressureless sintering or hot pressing with a variety of heating conditions. The phase formation, thermal expansion, and oxidation behavior are examined with fabricated specimens. The final densified bodies are found to be composites between ytterbium monosilicate and ytterbium disilicate with different ratios, which results in 4.43 to 6.72×10^-6/K range of coefficients of thermal expansion. The probability of these ytterbium silicates for EBC applications is also discussed.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.443-450
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• 2023

SiC/SiC_f CMC is vulnerable to water vapor corrosion at a high temperature of 1500℃. So, EBC (Environmental Barrier Coating) materials are required to protect Si-based CMCs. Ytterbium silicates are reported to have coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) similar to that of the base material, such as SiC/SiC_f CMC. When the EBC are materials exposed to high temperature environment, the interface between ytterbium silicates and SiC/SiC_f CMC is not separated, and the coating purpose can be safely achieved. For the perspective of EBC applications, thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer with different CTE is formed by the reaction with water vapor in EBC, which leads to a decrease in life time. In this study, we prepare two types of ytterbium silicates to observe the corrosion behavior during the expose to high temperature and water vapor. In order to observe this behavior, the steam-jet furnace is prepared. In addition, phase formation of these ytterbium silicates is analyzed with microstructures by the before/after steam-jet evaluation at 1500℃ for 100 h.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.437-443
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• 2017

SiC-based composite materials with light weight, high durability, and high-temperature stability have been actively studied for use in aerospace and defense applications. Moreover, environmental barrier coating (EBC) technologies using oxide-based ceramic materials have been studied to prevent chemical deterioration at a high temperature of $1300^{\circ}C$ or higher. In this study, an ytterbium silicate material, which has recently been actively studied as an environmental barrier coating because of its high-temperature chemical stability, is fabricated on a sintered SiC substrate. $Yb_2O_3$ and $SiO_2$ are used as the raw starting materials to form ytterbium disilicate ($Yb_2Si_2O_7$). Suspension plasma spraying is applied as the coating method. The effect of the mixing method on the particle size and distribution, which affect the coating formation behavior, is investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. It is found that the originally designed compounds are not effectively formed because of the refinement and vaporization of the raw material particles, i.e., $SiO_2$, and the formation of a porous coating structure. By changing the coating parameters such as the deposition distance, it is found that a denser coating structure can be formed at a closer deposition distance.