Conclusions
The density and microstructure of porous SiC-Si-C ceramics produced by reaction sintering were investigated. The most important findings can be summarized as follows.
(1) Increasing the reaction sintering temperature higher than 1400°C degraded the densification, and specimens had low strength due to numerous and large porosities remaining within them.
(2) Increasing the RS time from 2 to 4 h improved densification and less unreacted silicon and carbon phases were remained.
(3) Using the higher amount of silicon and/or carbon powders in the initial powder mixture had a detrimental influence on the densification. Additionally, higher amount of free silicon and carbon phases remained in the specimens.
(4) Superior densification was achieved by using nanometric SiC particles in the initial ceramic powder mixture compared to micrometric powders especially at longer RS durations and higher amount of Si and C in the starting powder mixture.