Effect of monomer content on physical properties of silicon nitride ceramic green body prepared by gelcasting

The gelcasting technique was employed to prepare Si3N4 green body. The monomers used in the research were acrylamide (AM) and N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAM). The influences of the monomer content (AM and MBAM) and the ratio of monomers (AM/MBAM) on the warpage rate, shrinkage rate, and the flexural strength of Si3N4 ceramics green body were investigated. Both warpage rate and shrinkage rate of green body were found to decrease with the increase of monomer content, and monotonically increase with the ratio of monomers after drying. The variation of warpage rate with the ratio of monomers is evident when monomer content is 20 wt.%, but the variations are not evident when monomer contents are 40 and 55 wt.%. The flexural strength of the green body is highest at an optimum value of the monomers ratio, and increases with increasing monomer content, reaching 50–90 MPa when monomer contents are 40 and 55 wt.%.