Enhancement of toughness and wear resistance in boron nitride nanoplatelet (BNNP) reinforced Si3N4 nanocomposites.
Ceramics have superior hardness, strength and corrosion resistance, but are also associated with poor toughness. Here, we propose the boron nitride nanoplatelet (BNNP) as a novel toughening reinforcement component to ceramics with outstanding mechanical properties and high-temperature stability. We used a planetary ball-milling process to exfoliate BNNPs in a scalable manner and functionalizes them with polystyrene sulfonate. Non-covalently functionalized BNNPs were homogeneously dispersed with Si3N4 powders using a surfactant and then consolidated by hot pressing. The fracture toughness of the BNNP/Si3N4 nanocomposite increased by as much as 24.7% with 2 vol.% of BNNPs. Furthermore, BNNPs enhanced strength (9.4%) and the tribological properties (26.7%) of the ceramic matrix. Microstructural analyzes have shown that the toughening mechanisms are combinations of the pull-out, crack bridging, branching and blunting mechanisms.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Bin
B
Lee
Nuclear Materials Development Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111 Daedeok-daero 989 Beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-353, Republic of Korea.
Dongju
D
Lee
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Jun Ho
JH
Lee
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.|Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Ho Jin
HJ
Ryu
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
Soon Hyung
SH
Hong