Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol.92, No.2, 481-486, 2009
Oxidation of ZrB2-SiC: Influence of SiC Content on Solid and Liquid Oxide Phase Formation
The effect of SiC concentration on the liquid and solid oxide phases formed during oxidation of ZrB2-SiC composites is investigated. Oxide-scale features called convection cells are formed from liquid and solid oxide reaction products upon oxidation of the ZrB2-SiC composites. These convection cells form in the outermost borosilicate oxide film of the oxide scale formed on the ZrB2-SiC during oxidation at high temperatures (>= 1500 degrees C). In this study, three ZrB2-SiC composites with different amounts of SiC were tested at 1550 degrees C for various durations of time to study the effect of the SiC concentration particularly on the formation of the convection cell features. A calculated ternary phase diagram of a ZrO2-SiO2-B2O3 (BSZ) system was used for interpretation of the results. The convection cells formed during oxidation were fewer and less uniformly distributed for composites with a higher SiC concentration. This is because the convection cells are formed from ZrO2 precipitates from a BSZ oxide liquid that forms upon oxidation of the composite at 1550 degrees C. Higher SiC-containing composites will have less dissolved ZrO2 because they have less B2O3, which results in a smaller amount of precipitated ZrO2 and consequently fewer convection cells.