Preparation of AlN ceramic bonded carbon by gelcasting and spark plasma sintering

To obtain light, strong materials with high thermal conductivity, a new carbon-based material, AlN ceramic bonded carbon (AlN/CBC), was fabricated by combining gelcasting and spark plasma sintering techniques. The results showed that AlN/CBC (20 vol% AlN) has a unique microstructure containing carbon grains of 15 μm in size and an AlN grain-boundary layer of 0.5–3 μm in thickness. Continuous AlN ceramic networks bonded the carbon grains together. Compared with the conventional AlN/carbon (AlN/C) material made by a ball-milling method, AlN/CBC showed a higher strength and a higher thermal conductivity by two and four times, respectively.