Effect of composition on spark plasma sintering of ZrB2-SiC-ZrC nanocomposite synthesized by MASPSyn

ZrB2-SiC-ZrC nanocomposites containing different contents of ZrC (6-20 wt%) were fabricated by spark plasma synthesizing and sintering method. Sintering mechanism was investigated by studying the displacement-temperature-time (DTT) diagrams which were obtained during spark plasma cycles. The flexural strength, hardness and fracture toughness were measured. The mean crystallite size of 77, 62 and 56 nm were calculated respectively for ZrB2, SiC and ZrC phases based on the Rietveld method. The maximum relative density (99.8±0.1%), flexural strength (620±24 MPa), Vickers hardness (19.3±0.4 GPa) and fracture toughness (5.7±0.2 MPa m1/2) were measured for the composite containing 15 wt% ZrC.