Abstract
A chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) technique was used to overcome most of the challenges involved in fabricating exceptionally-tough CNT/SiC composites. Nanotube pullout and sequential breaking and slippage of the walls of the CNTs during failure were consistently observed for all fractured CNT/SiC samples. These energy absorbing mechanisms result in the fracture strength of the CNT/SiC composites about an order of magnitude higher than the bulk SiC. The CVI-fabricated CNT/SiC composites have an strongly-bonded tube/matrix interface and an amorphous, crack-free SiC matrix, enabling the composites to withstand oxidization at 700-1600 °C in air.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2475-2482 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Carbon |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2011 |
Funding
Z.W.P. acknowledges funding by The University of Georgia Research Foundation and NSF (CAREER DMR-0955908); X.D.L and Y.C.Y acknowledge funding by NSF (CMMI-0824728 and CMMI 0968843). K.Y.L. thanks the financial support from the China Scholarship Council. G.E. acknowledges funding by the Materials Science and Engineering Division, Office of Basic Energy Science, US Department of Energy. The TEM characterization was conducted at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) SHaRE User Facility, which is sponsored by the Division of Scientific User Facilities, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy. We thank Richard A. Lowden at ORNL for helpful discussion and revision of the paper.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Division of Scientific User Facilities | |
| Materials Science and Engineering Division | |
| Office of Basic Energy Science | |
| Office of Basic Energy Sciences | |
| US Department of Energy | |
| National Science Foundation | CMMI-0824728, CMMI 0968843, DMR-0955908 |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | |
| University of Georgia Research Foundation | |
| China Scholarship Council |