TY - JOUR
T1 - Extraordinary toughening enhancement and flexural strength in Si3N4 composites using graphene sheets
AU - Ramirez, Cristina
AU - Miranzo, Pilar
AU - Belmonte, Manuel
AU - Osendi, Maria Isabel
AU - Poza, Pedro
AU - Vega-Diaz, Sofia M.
AU - Terrones, Mauricio
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Spanish Government (Mineco) with project ref. MAT2012-32944 . C. Ramirez thanks the financial support of the JAE fellowship program (CSIC).
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - Two types of Si3N4 composites containing graphene nanostructures using two different graphene sources, pristine graphene nanoplatelets and graphene oxide layers were produced by Spark Plasma Sintering. The maximum toughness of 10.4MPam1/2, measured by flexure testing of pre-cracked bars, was achieved for a composite (~60β/40α-Si3N4, ~300nm grain size) with 4vol.% of reduced graphene oxide, indicating a toughening enhancement of 135% when compared to a similar Si3N4. This was also accompanied by a 10% increase in flexure strength (1040MPa). For the composites with thicker graphene nanoplateletes only a 40% of toughness increase (6.6MPam1/2) without strength improvement was observed for the same filler content. The large difference in the maximum toughness values accomplished for both types of composites was attributed to variations in the graphene/Si3N4 interface characteristics and the extent of monolayer graphene exfoliation.
AB - Two types of Si3N4 composites containing graphene nanostructures using two different graphene sources, pristine graphene nanoplatelets and graphene oxide layers were produced by Spark Plasma Sintering. The maximum toughness of 10.4MPam1/2, measured by flexure testing of pre-cracked bars, was achieved for a composite (~60β/40α-Si3N4, ~300nm grain size) with 4vol.% of reduced graphene oxide, indicating a toughening enhancement of 135% when compared to a similar Si3N4. This was also accompanied by a 10% increase in flexure strength (1040MPa). For the composites with thicker graphene nanoplateletes only a 40% of toughness increase (6.6MPam1/2) without strength improvement was observed for the same filler content. The large difference in the maximum toughness values accomplished for both types of composites was attributed to variations in the graphene/Si3N4 interface characteristics and the extent of monolayer graphene exfoliation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2013.08.039
DO - 10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2013.08.039
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84887161378
SN - 0955-2219
VL - 34
SP - 161
EP - 169
JO - Journal of the European Ceramic Society
JF - Journal of the European Ceramic Society
IS - 2
ER -