• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2015

The composite of porous silicon (Si) and amorphous carbon (C) is prepared by pyrolysis of a nano-porous Si + pitch mixture. The nano-porous Si is prepared by mechanical milling of magnesium powder with silicon monoxide (SiO) followed by removal of MgO with hydrochloric acid (etching process). The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of porous Si ($64.52m^2g^{-1}$) is much higher than that before etching Si/MgO ($4.28m^2g^{-1}$) which indicates pores are formed in Si after the etching process. Cycling stability is examined for the nano-porous Si + C composite and the result is compared with the composite of nonporous Si + C. The capacity retention of the former composite is 59.6% after 50 charge/discharge cycles while the latter shows only 28.0%. The pores of Si formed after the etching process is believed to accommodate large volumetric change of Si during charging and discharging process.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 1998

The effect of $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$ seeding on microstructural development of silicon nitride based materials has been investigated. In particular, to observe more distinctly the abnormal grain growth in pressureless sintering, fine $\alpha$-$Si_3N_4$(mean particle size: 0.26 ${\mu}m$) powder classified by sedimentation method was used. It was possible to prepare silicon nitride with abnormally grown grains under low nitrogen pressure of 1 atm thanks to the heterogeneous nucleation on $Si_3N_4$ seed particles. The size and morphology of silicon nitride grains were strongly influenced by the presence of $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$ seed and overall chemical composition. For specimens with initially low $\beta$-content, the large grains grew without a significant impingement by other large grains. On the contrary, for specimens with initially high $\beta$-content, steric hindrance was effective. The resulting microstructure was less inhomogeneous and characterized by unimodal grain size distribution.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.22-27
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• 1998

The effect of the $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase fraction on the mechanical properties in silicon nitrides was investigated in part 1. In part II, we describe the role of microstructure on the mechanical properties and contact damage of silicon nitrides with coarse/equiaxed and coarse/elongated microstructures. Grain sizes and shapes were controlled by starting powder. Hertzian indentation using spherical indenter was also used to investigate contact damage behavior. Cone cracks from the spherical indentation were suppressed when the silicon nitride contains coarse and elongated grains. Coarse and elongated grains played an important role of cone crack suppression. The size of quasi-plastic zone does not depend on grain size or shape but depends on the fraction of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase. A quasi-plastic zone was consisting of microcracks by shear stress during indentation.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.6 s.289
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• pp.327-332
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• 2006

The effect of the processing parameters on the sintered density and strength of silica-bonded SiC (SBSC) ceramics was investigated for three types of batches with different particle sizes. The SBSC ceramics were fabricated by an oxidation-bonding process. The process involves the sintering of powder compacts in air so that the SiC particles bond to each other by oxidation-derived $SiO_2$ glass or cristobalite. A finding of this study was that a higher flexural strength was obtained when the starting powder was smaller. When a ${\sim}0.3_{-{\mu}m}$ SiC powder was used as a starting powder, a high strength of $257{\pm}42\;MPa$ was achieved at a relative density of ${\sim}80%$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.99-104
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• 2016

High purity Si-C (99.999%) powder prepared by mechanical alloying was added to a commercial SiC powder as a sintering additive. Reaction bonded silicon carbide balls and jars with high purity (99.98%) were used for the mechanical alloying. As a result, the purity of the sintered Si-C was higher than 99.99%. When sintered at $2200^{\circ}C$ under 50 MPa pressure for 1 h, SiC containing 10 wt% of high purity Si-C showed a relative density of 95.3%, similar to the relative density of commercial SiC (95%). However, the relative density of SiC decreased to 90.6% without the additive when the applied pressure decreased to 40 MPa. In contrast, the relative density was nearly unaffected by the decrease of the pressure when using the Si-C additive. Therefore, the addition of Si-C powder promoted the densification of SiC above $2000^{\circ}C$ under 40 MPa pressure.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.402-407
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• 2018

Molybdenum silicide has gained interest for high temperature structural applications. However, poor fracture toughness at room temperatures and low creep resistance at elevated temperatures have hindered its practical applications. This study uses a novel powder metallurgical approach applied to uniformly mixed molybdenum silicide-based composites with silicon carbide. The degree of powder mixing with different ball milling time is also demonstrated by Voronoi diagrams. Core-shell composite powder with Mo nanoparticles as the shell and ${\beta}-SiC$ as the core is prepared via chemical vapor transport. Using this prepared core-shell composite powder, the molybdenum silicide-based composites with uniformly dispersed ${\beta}-SiC$ are fabricated using pressureless sintering. The relative density of the specimens sintered at $1500^{\circ}C$ for 10 h is 97.1%, which is similar to pressure sintering owing to improved sinterability using Mo nanoparticles.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.8 s.291
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• pp.472-478
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• 2006

The effect of compositional and processing variables on a nitriding reaction of silicon powder compact and subsequent post sintering of RBSN (Reaction-Bonded Silicon Nitride) was investigated. The addition of a nitriding agent enhanced nitridation rate substantially at low temperatures, while the formation of a liquid phase between the nitriding agent and the sintering additives at a high temperature caused a negative catalyst effect resulting in a decreased nitridation rate. A liquid phase formed by solely an additive, however, was found to have no effect on nitridation for the additive amount used in this research. The original site of a decomposing pore former was loosely filled by a reaction product ($Si_3N_4$), which provided a specimen with nitriding gas passage. For SRBSN (Sintered RBSN) specimens of high porosity, only a marginal dimensional change was measured after post sintering. Its engineering implication for near-net shaping ability is discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.360-367
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• 2011

Macroporous silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics were fabricated by powder processing and polymer processing using carbon-filled polysiloxane as a precursor. The effects of the starting SiC polytype, template type, and template content on porosity and flexural strength of macroporous SiC ceramics were investigated. The ${\beta}$-SiC powder as a starting material or a filler led to higher porosity than ${\alpha}$-SiC powder, owing to the impingement of growing ${\alpha}$-SiC grains, which were transformed from ${\beta}$-SiC during sintering. Typical flexural strength of powder-processed macroporous SiC ceramics fabricated from ${\alpha}$-SiC starting powder and polymer microbeads was 127 MPa at 29% porosity. In contrast, that of polymer-processed macroporous SiC ceramics fabricated from carbon-filled polysiloxane, ${\beta}$-SiC fillers, and hollow microspheres was 116MPa at 29% porosity. The combination of ${\alpha}$-SiC starting powder and a fairly large amount (10 wt%) of $Al_2O_3-Y_2O_3$ additives led to macroporous SiC ceramics with excellent flexural strength.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 1998

The effect of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase on the mechanical properties and contact damage of silicon nitrides $Si_3N_4$) was investigated. Silicon nitride materials were prepared from two starting powders, at selective increasing hot-pressing temperatures to coarsen the microstructures: (i) from relatively coarse $\alpha$-phase powder, essentially equiaxed $\alpha$-$Si_3N_4$ grains, with limited, slow transformation to $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$ grain; (ii) from relatively fine $\alpha$-phase powder, a more rapid transformation to $\beta$-$Si_3N_4$, with attendant grain elongation. The resulting micro-structure thereby provided a spectrum of $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase ratios, grain sizes, and grain shapes. Fracture strength, hardness, and toughness were measured, and contact damage and strength degradation after indentation were investigated by Hertzian indentation using spherical indenter. A brittle to ductile transition in $Si_3N_4$ depended on $\alpha$/$\beta$ phase ratio as well as grain size. Silicon nitride with elongated $\beta$ grains showed a superior, contact damage resistance.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.240-246
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• 2015

Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been widely used for the development and fabrication of nano-powder with various morphologies such as particle, wire, rod, and tube. So far, many researchers have reported about shape control and fabrication of AAO films. However, they have reported on the shape control with different diameter and length of anodic aluminum oxide mainly. We present a combined mild-hard (or hard-mild) anodization to prepare shape-controlled AAO films. Two main parameters which are combination mild-hard (or hard-mild) anodization and run-time of voltage control are applied in this work. The voltages of mild and hard anodization are respectively 40 and 80 V. Anodization was conducted on the aluminum sheet in 0.3 mole oxalic acid at $4^{\circ}C$. AAO films with morphologies of varying interpore distance, branch-shaped pore, diameter-modulated pore and long funnel-shaped pore were fabricated. Those shapes will be able to apply to fabricate novel nano-materials with potential application which is especially a support to prevent volume expansion of inserted active materials, such as metal silicon or tin powder, in lithium ion battery. The silicon powder electrode using an AAO as a support shows outstanding cycle performance as 1003 mAh/g up to 200 cycles.